At the end of October 2024, gray darkness descended on the British Isles. There's nothing unusual there. But this veil of ambiguity remained particularly persistent even for Britain. In some areas, the sun was barely visible for two weeks. For example, residents of the village of Odiham in Hampshire enjoyed just 12 minutes of sunshine during the first 11 days of November. And according to the Met Office, Britain's weather bureau, there were just 8.3 hours of sunshine across the UK during this period, which was well below the average for the time of year. Meanwhile, in Spain, a slow-moving storm caused torrential rain in the Valencia region, causing flash floods and killing 231 people.
Both phenomena can be blamed on the jet stream, a high-velocity stream of air that flows from west to east around the Earth. In October 2024, the polar jet buckled, capturing high pressure over the UK and low pressure over Spain. This is not unprecedented. The jet stream sometimes buckles. But even casual observers may have noticed that weather events appear to last longer across the Northern Hemisphere, from Europe to North America. Climate scientists are now scrambling to figure out whether global warming is making the jet stream more erratic, as some predict.
We need answers urgently. Without a clear picture of how the jet stream is changing and what it means for the weather, we could significantly underestimate upcoming extreme events. “We need to continue working towards understanding these extreme situations.”
Source: www.newscientist.com
