Why Is It So Cold in the US?

Three Kings Day — [the Epiphany] — brought a poisoned gift to the United States, at least in the northern-central states in the country. After several days of heavy snow on the East Coast, the morning of Jan. 6 brought an invasion of cold air from the Canadian and Siberian tundras. It reached -52 C (-62 F). The lowest temperature ever recorded is -90 C (-130 F) in Antarctica, and -68 C (-90.4 F) in Verkhoyansk, in northern Siberia. People described a polar vortex, with hurricane winds circulating around the North Pole with very cold air inside, which, for some reason, moved south, dragging the cold air to temperate zones.

However, if we look at the timing of the polar vortex, we see clearly that, by midnight, on Saturday, Jan. 4, a branch of the tundra’s jet stream was pushing air toward the center of the United States. On the map of Jan. 6, at midnight, the air had reached the Midwest and, now, on Jan. 7, it is still there.

The Polar Jet Stream

Jan. 4

The polar jet stream is a strong current of air flowing between 8,000 and 11,000 meters high in the atmosphere, between the poles and tropics. Like any fluid stream, it meanders, and these meanderings are much more pronounced where the current is weaker. The intensity of the current depends on the temperature difference between the Equator and North Pole, and the North Pole this year is — relatively — hot, or hotter than it was, say, 50 years ago. This year the storks have returned to Alcalá de Henares from Finland in December, instead of early October, and in the final days of December, I saw a flock of hawks on their annual migration from northern Europe to Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Jan. 6

We felt the jet stream’s meanderings in Spain, with sudden changes of intense cold — when the wandering Greenland air descended on our country — followed by showers and warm air when the meandering current dragged air from the central Atlantic.

According to what wonderful, skeptical scientists tell us, there is no climate change. Insurance companies tell us otherwise: Climate extremes are increasing and are costing some $205 billion per year and growing. In the American West, the Colorado River, which supplies water to eight states, is drying up, with dams at such low levels that, to bring water to Las Vegas, they have had to drill wells at increasingly lower levels. The ship Akademik Sholkalkiy spent weeks aground in Antarctica.

Climate change is not a temperature rise in each village, but it can be that too. Climate change is a change, a change of climate: the balance between air masses, between sea temperatures and ground temperatures between Equator and the poles. It is essentially a weakening of the temperature gradient between the Equator and, especially, the North Pole — with water that is much warmer than the soil of Antarctica — and the weakening of the gradient, a change in the circulation of the polar jet stream and with the change of seasons, rainfall and changes of temperatures caused by air masses moving from another part of the planet.

There is no climate change, skeptics say. The best example of change we have is change in the economy: There is no way to return to the well-being that came directly from a quarter of the world’s population accessing energy, in the form of oil, almost for free. Now, energy is expensive, and another quarter of the population wants access to it. Things change.

The Climate Changes

The weather changes, and it changes because we happily emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Even Europe, which launched an ambitious program to reduce emissions, is forgetting that and, in its eighth framework program, there is no new or efficient stimulus to change energy consumption. The U.S. is happily burning billions of cubic meters of gas extracted by squeezing the ground dry like a sponge. In Spain, our wonderful authorities have almost eliminated the entire clean energy scheme, even proposing fines of thousands of euros for anyone who wants to help slow climate change by installing home solar cells.

We are very smart, us humans. There is no economic change, no climate change. Nope. However, the polar invasions are becoming more frequent; extreme temperatures —i n Seville, for example — are increasingly high. The rivers are running dry, and land degradation is amplified by runoff from increasingly heavy rain.

Maybe, one day, we will accept that we are changing the world and decide to take action to correct the change or adapt to it. Meanwhile, we go through heat and cold, and every year lose $205 billion for not taking precautions that could generate a lot more than that $205 billion in wealth for all citizens.

Remember, the cold in the U.S. is because of the meandering of the jet stream, and this is because of climate change.