On Hawaii’s Big Island, prevailing Pacific trade winds from the northeast bring more rainfall to northern & eastern slopes, leading to dramatic differences in vegetation on different sides of the island.
At the highest point atop the Greenland Ice Sheet, Matthew Shupe and his colleagues are installing a suite of climate and weather instruments. Their goal is to better understand the role of clouds in the rapid warming observed across the Arctic region.
A wave of cold Arctic air gripped much of North America, Europe, and northern portions of Asia through the month of December 2009.
In May and June each year, speculation about the coming of the monsoon fills newspapers and conversations across India. Everyone is concerned about if, when, and how much rain will arrive. But none have more at stake than India’s over 100 million farming households.
On September 12, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic reached the third lowest level ever recorded since satellite records began in 1979. Only 2007 and 2008 have had smaller ice extents than 2009.
There is a lot more to the polar vortex than disrupted winds and increased odds for cold weather.
Large parts of the North American Arctic had their shortest snow-covered season on record, while parts of Eurasia had a longer-than-average snow-covered season.
Though many aspects of nature in the Northern Hemisphere tend to quiet down during the winter, the stratospheric polar vortex in the Arctic is just getting started.