WEATHER ANOMALIES: Extreme Weather Tied To Unusual Jet Stream - Responsible For Record Heat Wave, Damaging Tornadoes, Unseasonable Snowstorms, Historic Floods, And The Path Of Superstorm Sandy!

June 27, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Lately, the jet stream isn’t playing by the rules. Scientists say that big river of air high above Earth that dictates much of the weather for the Northern Hemisphere has been unusually erratic the past few years.

They blame it for everything from snowstorms in May to the path of Superstorm Sandy.

And last week, it was responsible for downpours that led to historic floods in Alberta, Canada, as well as record-breaking heat in parts of Alaska, experts say. The town of McGrath, Alaska, hit 94. Just a few weeks earlier, the same spot was 15 degrees.

The current heat wave in the Northeast is also linked.

“While it’s not unusual to have a heat wave in the east in June, it is part of the anomalous jet stream pattern that was responsible for the flooding in Alberta,” Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis said yesterday in an email. 

The jet stream usually rushes rapidly from west to east in a mostly straight direction. But lately it’s been wobbling and weaving like a drunken driver, wreaking havoc as it goes. The more the jet stream undulates north and south, the more changeable and extreme the weather.

It’s a relatively new phenomenon that scientists are still trying to understand. Some say it’s related to global warming; others say it’s not. 

In May, there was upside-down weather: Early California wildfires fueled by heat contrasted with more than a foot of snow in Minnesota. Seattle was the hottest spot in the nation one day, and Maine and Edmonton, Canada, were warmer than Miami and Phoenix.

Consider these unusual occurrences over the past few years:

• The winter of 2011-12 seemed to disappear, with little snow and record warmth in March. That was followed by the winter of 2012-13 when nor’easters seemed to queue up to strike the same coastal areas repeatedly.

•  Superstorm Sandy took an odd left turn in October from the Atlantic straight into New Jersey, something that happens once every 700 years or so.

•  One 12-month period had a record number of tornadoes. That was followed by 12 months that set a record for lack of tornadoes.

And here is what federal weather officials call a “spring paradox”: The U.S. had both an unusually large area of snow cover in March and April and a near-record low area of snow cover in May. The entire Northern Hemisphere had record snow coverage area in December but the third lowest snow extent for May.

“I’ve been doing meteorology for 30 years and the jet stream the last three years has done stuff I’ve never seen,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. “The fact that the jet stream is unusual could be an indicator of something. I’m not saying we know what it is.”

Rutgers’ Francis is in the camp that thinks climate change is probably playing a role in this. 

“It’s been just a crazy fall and winter and spring all along, following a very abnormal sea ice condition in the Arctic,” Francis said, noting that last year set a record low for summer sea ice in the Arctic. “It’s possible what we’re seeing in this unusual weather is all connected.”

Other scientists don’t make the sea ice and global warming connections that Francis does. They see random weather or long-term cycles at work. And even more scientists are taking a wait-and-see approach about this latest theory. It’s far from a scientific consensus, but it is something that is being studied more often and getting a lot of scientific buzz.

“There are some viable hypotheses,” Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said. “We’re going to need more evidence to fully test those hypotheses.”

The jet stream, or more precisely the polar jet stream, is the one that affects the Northern Hemisphere. It dips down from Alaska, across the United States or Canada, then across the Atlantic and over Europe and “has everything to do with the weather we experience,” Francis said.

It all starts with the difference between cold temperatures in the Arctic and warmer temperatures in the mid-latitudes, she explained. The bigger the temperature difference, the stronger the jet stream, the faster it moves and the straighter it flows. But as the northern polar regions warm two to three times faster than the rest of the world, augmented by unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice and loss in snow cover, the temperature difference shrinks. Then the jet stream slows and undulates more.

The jet stream is about 14 percent slower in the fall now than in the 1990s, according to a recent study by Francis. And when it slows, it moves north-south instead of east-west, bringing more unusual weather, creating blocking patterns and cutoff lows that are associated with weird weather, the Rutgers scientist said.

Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said that recently the jet stream seems to create weather patterns that get stuck, making dry spells into droughts and hot days into heat waves.

Take the past two winters. They were as different as can be, but both had unusual jet stream activity. Normally, the jet stream plunges southwest from western Washington state, sloping across to Alabama. Then it curves slightly out to sea around the Outer Banks, a swoop that’s generally straight without dramatic bends.

During the mostly snowless winter of 2011-12 and the record warm March 2012, the jet stream instead formed a giant upside-down U, curving dramatically in the opposite direction. That trapped warm air over much of the Eastern U.S. A year later the jet stream was again unusual, this time with a sharp U-turn north. This trapped colder and snowier weather in places like Chicago and caused nor’easters in New England, Francis said.

But for true extremes, nothing beats tornadoes.

In 2011, the United States was hit over and over by killer twisters. From June 2010 to May 2011 the U.S. had a record number of substantial tornadoes, totaling 1,050. Then just a year later came a record tornado drought. From May 2012 to April 2013 there were only 217 tornadoes — 30 fewer than the old record, said Harold Brooks, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Brooks said both examples were related to unusual jet stream patterns.

Last fall, a dip in the jet stream over the United States and northward bulge of high pressure combined to pull Superstorm Sandy almost due west into New Jersey, Francis said. That track is so rare and nearly unprecedented that computer models indicate it would happen only once every 714 years, according to a new study by NASA and Columbia University scientists.

“Everyone would agree that we are in a pattern” of extremes, NOAA research meteorologist Martin Hoerling said. “We don’t know how long it will stay in this pattern.” - Valley News.

Disasters happened after the Transit of Venus on June 6 2012

Ancient Mayans had very accurate calendars. They could calculate the exact date of planet paths, eclipse, lunar eclipse and the transit of Venus 1,000 years ago. Their calendar calculated that the transit of Venus would appear at 6:12 on 6 June 2012 (HK time).

The Mayan predicted that the world would experience intensive changes and frequent disasters after this transit. Disasters would continue until the end of the calendar, i.e. 21 Dec. this year.

In fact, unusual disasters and changes on the environment and the climate have happened after the transit on 6 Jun. this year.

For example, there are 21 magnitude 5 or above earthquakes between 6 and 27 Jun. On average, earthquakes occurred 2.6 times a day. It’s an obvious increase.

This includes a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Turkey on 11 Jun. 59 were injured. Some buildings were damaged.

Also, the 6.5 earthquake in Yilan, Taiwan on the same day awakened people on the whole island. Details were still unknown.

There were 181 earthquakes within four days from 15-18 Jun. in Hualien, Taiwan. The highest were magnitude 5.

A 5.4 magnitude earthquake affected 43,000 people in Luntai, Xinjiang, China on 15 Jun. 2,400 buildings collapsed or damaged seriously.

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Baghlan, Afghan on 11 Jun. Landslides buried villages. At least 100 people were killed.

There was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake on the boundary of Yulan and Sichuan on 25 Jun. 4 were killed. 71,000 were affected. The government launched a level 4 emergency response.

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake in Xinyuan, Xinjiang on 1 July made 27,000 people evacuated and 2,200 buildings collapsed. 34,000 buildings were damaged. 35 billion RMB were lost.

There was a flash flood right after the earthquake. Heavy rain continued for half an hour at noon on the day of the earthquake. Flash flood then occurred in a town in Xinyuan. Casualties increased to 155,000.

Not only that, massive animal deaths became worse after the transit of Venus on 6 Jun. Moreover, it is scary to see the extremely unusual disasters and changes in the environment and the climate.

200 tons of dead fishes were washed to the shore at one of the fishing port in Chiba, Japan on 6 Jun. Local fishers said they heard the fish one night before that but had never seen so many dead fishes.

Thousands of fishes died mysteriously in Imperia Lakes in Florida, U.S. on 6 Jun.

More than ten thousand carps were found dead in Blue Springs Lake in Missouri, U.S. on 7 Jun.

Massive animal death appeared in Coevorden, the Netherland on 8 Jun.

Massive fish bodies were discovered in Lake Manitoba in Canada on 17 Jun. Causes of death was still unknown.

Moreover, locusts invaded the Sacramento farm in California, U.S. in the beginning of Jun.

The plight was so astonishing. It was just like the disaster of locusts in Moses’ time when Planet X visited.

In fact, it is predicted in Revelation that in the last days, the disaster of locusts would immerge again.

Moreover, extremely unusual disasters and changes in the environment and the climate also occurred after the transit.

Victoria, Australia was raged by a 144 km per hour wind entrained 150 mm of rain. Highways were blocked. Meteorological data showed that the amount of rainfall exceeded 200 mm, equaled to that in 1.5 months in Victoria.

An extremely rare tornado immerged in Perth, Australia on 7 Jun. Many buildings and shops were destroyed.

A weird ice storm slammed Donegal, Ireland on 8 Jun. Heavy rainfall and flooding appeared in many places in that country. Residents said they had never seen such strange snow in June.

High temperatures were recorded in Taiwan on 10 Jun. Temperature in many places in Taiwan was as high as 35°C. Fohn wind appeared in Taiwan east. Four were killed because of high temperature.

After the earthquakes, torrential rains led to serious flooding in the south of Taiwan after 9 Jun. Roads subsided. Debris flow occurred.

The extremely strange Typhoon Talim formed in western Taiwan on 20 Jun. was mixed with an alarming 679 mm rainfall, hitting southern Taiwan.

The loss of agricultural facilities was up to NT 976.6 million dollars (HK$250 million) within 15 days under the attack of Talim.

Thunderstorm hit southern China. Landslides occurred in Guizhou and Hunan. At least 1.5 million people were affected. Over 700 million Yuan were lost directly.

Rainfall was especially severe in Jiangxi, causing heavy casualties. It’s the kind of rainfall that’s never been seen in a century.

The first tornado ever in 42 years happened in Venezia, Italy on 12 Jun.

Scary hail attacked Dallas, U.S. on 13 Jun. Baseball-like hail destroyed many vehicles and houses.

Cleveland volcano injected a few kilometers of volcanic ashes into the air on 19 Jun. This may affect flight safety. Authorities had enhanced the level of alertness.

Super Typhoon Guchol was the first typhoon in June in Japan in eight years. Wind coincided with tide. Sea water intruded the streets, leading to a large-scale blackout. 30,000 victims were evacuated. More than 400 flights were grounded.

North and South Korea were experiencing the worst drought in this century on 25 Jun. Soldiers in North Korea irrigated farmlands, while South Koreans protected endangered species. The UN said that two-third of the North Koreans faced food shortage. 20,000 were starved to death.

Landslides on Mount Elgon on the boundary of Uganda and Kenya killed about hundreds of people on 25 Jun. 11 villages were buried. 18 bodies were found. 450 were missing.

Typhoon Debby passed Florida, U.S. on 25 Jun., bringing rainstorms and tornadoes. 3 were killed. Many buildings were damaged. Typhoon Debby landed the Gulf of Mexico through Panhandle, creating 3 m waves and 600 mm rainfall. Authorities paid close attention to flood warnings in Florida. Houses were flooded completely and washed away many roads. Hundreds of thousands of residents experienced blackouts.

Torrential rain began on 25 Jun. in Fenghuang ancient city, Hunan. It lasted 12 hours. Toujiang River surged. The bridge above it was drowned. Many planks were washed away. Tuojiang rafting attractions stopped operation. All vessels were transferred elsewhere.

Local heavy rainfall hit Ningnan, Liangshan, Sichuan from 27 to 28 Jun. The 236 mm rainfall brought about debris flow in the upstream and confluence in the middle and lower streams. A three-storey residential building was destroyed, 38 missing, 3 killed.

Heavy rainfall caused flooding in many places in China on 28 Jun. Authorities reported that 10 had died in Guangxi. 1.2 million people were affected. Flooding was most serious in Guilin, Guangxi. Tourism spots, Li River and the Elephant Trunk Hill, were closed temporarily.

Strangely, downpour and hail appeared together in Midwest and northern England on 29 Jun. Many vehicles were hit by golf-size hail and sunken. 10 flooding warnings were issued in the Midwest. The UK Met. Office stated that terribly, there were 153 lightning per minute.

Indeed, there are very unusual changes in the environment and the climate after the transit of Venus on 6 Jun. So many disasters have happened within 30 days.