Climatology

If you've wondered why we have missed half our winter:

 

"The jet stream is fueled by the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations, which are climate patterns determined by differences in sea-level pressure. A positive pressure difference, which is what we've been experiencing in the past few months, draws warm air from the southwest over the Eastern United States instead of cold air from the Arctic which is what happened last year and why tons of snow dumped on us.

 

Piling on the weather weirdness, La Niña conditions have pushed warm water toward Australia, decreasing Pacific Ocean temperatures off the U.S. to about 5 degrees lower than normal. That also means less precipitation, because colder water is less likely to evaporate..."

 

"The weather oscillations over the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic have been off-the-charts extreme in recent years, likely driven at least in part by the precipitous decline in the volume of Arctic sea ice. This is something which warrants close attention and further study, and what happens with atmospheric patterns in the far north also directly affects weather to the south of there. An example of that is the past three winters including this one."

 

Meteorologists say the jet stream will oscillate back in the next few weeks giving us a wintery end to our non-winter.