What is it about?
Persistent high pressure systems, known as atmospheric blocks, are associated with weather extremes such as drought, heat waves, flooding, and sudden long-lasting cold snaps throughout much of the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia. Understanding what impacts blocking can help us to better predict it. In this paper, we find that an important form of weekly tropical variability known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) significantly impacts blocking, at times associated with a doubling in how often blocks occur.
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Why is it important?
Given the strong link between blocking and persistent weather extremes, understanding what impacts blocking can improve the predictability of long-lasting weather extremes. Our study found that there is a significant impact of the MJO on blocking, suggesting that the MJO may be a useful predictor of blocking events. MJO events vary on weekly timescales, suggesting that during MJO events atmospheric blocks may have some predictability up to several weeks in advance.
Perspectives
The weather extremes associated with persistent blocking events impact much of the general population. Here we see that blocks throughout the Northern Hemisphere are impacted by a distant tropical phenomenon. My hope is that this paper shows just how interconnected the world is, and how something so far away from your own home can have such a significant impact in your region.
Stephanie Henderson
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Influence of the Madden–Julian Oscillation on Northern Hemisphere Winter Blocking, Journal of Climate, June 2016, American Meteorological Society,
DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-15-0502.1.
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