For those of you interested in the Arctic-like conditions making the collective fingers and toes of Western Europe blue, there is an interesting blog post on the Wunder Blog. Some frozen individuals in London and New York decry global warming when they have to turn up their thermostats in early December, but the fact is that while Western Europe and the Eastern U.S. are cooling down, the Arctic is warming up. This is part of the “Hot Arctic – Cold Continents” pattern. All of the cool air that should be trapped in the Arctic, helping to keep sea ice frozen, is spilling southward. Meanwhile, more warm air goes north to replace the cold air flowing out, resulting in temperatures in Greenland that are 10+ above normal, while Heathrow is socked in by snow. Such reversals of meteorological function are caused by alterations in the North Atlantic Oscillation. When there is a small difference in air pressure between the “Icelandic Low” and “Azores High,” the north and south poles of the oscillation, respectively, the Arctic will warm, while the continents will freeze.
This illustration from a March 2009 article in Nature by Nicolas Gruber (“Carbon cycle: Fickle trends in the ocean,”) demonstrates that when the Icelandic Low and Azores High are both high in pressure (meaning that the difference between the two would be minimal), winter storms will blow across Northern Europe.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
