Earth's New Normal: Wild Weather 2014

The Arctic is warming at least two times faster than the rest of our planet.  It's not just the loss of the white surface, which reflects solar radiation back to space and helps keep Earth at a habitable temperature range for our species that is a concern.

A warming Arctic Ocean of 1.8 degrees (F) had caused the upper atmosphere to change, dramatically.  The polar jet stream is a powerful upper atmosphere torrent of air, which normally hugs the North Pole tightly, but since it has been super-charged with Arctic Ocean heat it's migrating with regularity - southward.

A meandering polar jet stream spells epic wild weather.

A massive winter blizzard on January 3, 2014 throughout the Northeast has dumped feet of snow and now Arctic air is spilling bone-chilling temperatures across at least half of the United States.  On the Northern Plains, including Iowa, Minnesota, Dakotas, and eastern Montana, the mercury has plummeted with wind chills reaching in excess of -50 degrees (F).

Earth's New Normal:  Wild Weather 2014