Study: Arctic Sea Ice Loss Shifts Jet Stream, Driving Deluges In NW Europe, Drought In Mediterranean

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/30/2851001/arctic-sea-ice-loss-shifts-jet-stream/

By Joe Romm on October 30, 2013

Yet another study finds Arctic sea ice loss can shift the jet stream and alter the climate.

Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would shift storm tracks and bring on worse western droughts of the kind we are now seeing. Recent studies find that Arctic sea ice loss may well usher changes in the jet stream that lead to more U.S. extreme weather events (see here and here).

Several studies also suggest that in Arctic sea ice loss is driving more extreme weather in other parts of the world (see review here).

Now a new study in Environmental Research Letters, “Influence of Arctic sea ice on European summer precipitation” finds a “a causal link between observed sea ice anomalies, large-scale atmospheric circulation and increased summer rainfall over northern Europe.” The University of Exeter news release explains:

A new study offers an explanation for the extraordinary run of wet summers experienced by Britain and northwest Europe between 2007 and 2012. The study found that loss of Arctic sea ice shifts the jet stream further south than normal resulting in increased rain during the summer in northwest Europe.

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