Newly identified jet-stream pattern could imperil global food supplies, says study

https://phys.org/news/2019-12-large-atmospheric-jet-stream-global.html

by Columbia University
Dec. 9, 2019

Scientists have identified systematic meanders in the globe-circling northern jet stream that have caused simultaneous crop-damaging heat waves in widely separated breadbasket regions-a previously unquantified threat to global food production that, they say, could worsen with global warming. The research shows that certain kinds of waves in the atmospheric circulation can become amplified and then lock in place for extended periods, triggering the concurrent heat waves. Affected parts of North America, Europe and Asia together produce a quarter of the world food supply.

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