An unprecedented strengthening of the Pacific trade winds over the past two decades has altered ocean circulation and could help to explain the current plateau in global temperatures.

Matthew England at the University of New South Wales in Australia and his colleagues used a global climate model to look at the impact of the stronger winds. Their model suggests that the fiercer trade winds help to cool the central and eastern Pacific while driving warm water into the deeper ocean in the west. They found that the wind effect cooled global temperatures by 0.1–0.2 °C in 2012 compared to a control run without increased trade winds.

Models assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have generally overestimated recent warming trends. However, the authors suggest that if stronger trade winds are factored in, the climate models tally with the observed temperature changes.

Nature Clim. Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2106 (2014)