The stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere at heights between 10-50 km, is an important source of variability for the weather and climate at the Earth’s surface on timescales of weeks to decades. Since the stratospheric circulation evolves more slowly than that of the troposphere below, it can contribute to predictability at the surface.
With a better understanding of stratosphere-troposphere coupling, it may be possible to link more tropospheric extremes to stratospheric forcing, which will be crucial for emergency planning and management.
The following presentation is part of the National Weather Service’s Climate Services Seminar. Dr. Amy Butler studies large-scale climate variability, teleconnections, atmospheric dynamics, stratospheric processes, and sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction. She is particularly interested in the stratospheric polar vortex and its influence on surface weather and extremes. Dr. Butler received her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Colorado State University. She worked at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center from 2009-2013. Since then, she has been working at the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory.
I don’t know about any of that, but we have around six inches of snow on the ground and I’m feeling like we got gypped out of our share of global warming up this way.
Talk about structural inequities in our system that the Biden administration had better tackle pronto, why is it that I should have to be out there at my age shoveling snow when people in Miami get to walk around in shorts all the time?
Talk about unfair, there it is right there in black and white!