What’s the meteorological processes that made the current winter storm so particularly bad?
In: Earth Science
It’s fairly nice here in Alabama. No idea what storm nonsense you’re talking about.
Where ya from? This question is kinda location dependent.
At the top of the planet there’s a circulating rope of air called the Jet Stream that keeps the super cold Arctic air up in the North Pole. Now if the jet stream happens to get an influx of energy or some kind of disturbance, it will stretch out kind of like a spinning rubber band does from centripetal force. When it does this, it kind of droops down towards the middle of the planet so now the barrier that stops the Arctic air from going south is no longer in northern Canada – it’s in like Kansas. This is the simplified version. Interestingly climate change is expected to cause harsher winters due to this effect.
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