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Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather

Abstract

The Arctic region has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average — a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. The rapid Arctic warming has contributed to dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice and spring snow cover, at a pace greater than that simulated by climate models. These profound changes to the Arctic system have coincided with a period of ostensibly more frequent extreme weather events across the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, including severe winters. The possibility of a link between Arctic change and mid-latitude weather has spurred research activities that reveal three potential dynamical pathways linking Arctic amplification to mid-latitude weather: changes in storm tracks, the jet stream, and planetary waves and their associated energy propagation. Through changes in these key atmospheric features, it is possible, in principle, for sea ice and snow cover to jointly influence mid-latitude weather. However, because of incomplete knowledge of how high-latitude climate change influences these phenomena, combined with sparse and short data records, and imperfect models, large uncertainties regarding the magnitude of such an influence remain. We conclude that improved process understanding, sustained and additional Arctic observations, and better coordinated modelling studies will be needed to advance our understanding of the influences on mid-latitude weather and extreme events.

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Figure 1: Polar amplification of temperature trends, 1979–2014.
Figure 2: Winter temperature trends since 1960 and over the most recent period from 1990.
Figure 3: Temperature and precipitation extremes.
Figure 4: Schematic of ways to influence Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude weather.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E. Barnes for many helpful discussions and suggested revisions to the manuscript. J.C. is supported by the National Science Foundation grants BCS-1060323 and AGS-1303647. J.S. is funded by Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/J019585/1. M.B. received support from National Science Foundation grant ARC-0909272 and NASA NNX13AN36G. J.O. receives support from the Arctic Research Project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Program Office and the Office of Naval Research, Code 322.

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J.C. proposed and was the main author of the manuscript. All co-authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. J.S. created Fig. 1, J.F. Figs 2 & 4, D.C. Fig. 3, J.F. and J.C. Fig. 4, M.B. and J.C. Fig. B1, and D.W. and J.C. Fig. B2.

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Correspondence to Judah Cohen.

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AA and mid-latitude weather outside of winter (PDF 757 kb)

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Cohen, J., Screen, J., Furtado, J. et al. Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather. Nature Geosci 7, 627–637 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2234

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