B2BI Planning Meeting: Jim Overland, Mechanisms for North Atlantic Climate Variability
Channel: B2BI Research
Date: 2021-05-19

Twenty years ago, the Arctic was more resilient than now as sea ice was three times thicker than today and provided a buffer against the influence of short-term climate fluctuations. Random excursions of North Atlantic weather, Greenland blocking and jet stream latitudes, interact with temperature increases and sea ice loss to provide extremes, some beyond previous records. Such new extremes include Greenland ice mass loss, stronger storms, sea ice as thin and more mobile, coastal erosion, springtime snow loss, permafrost thaw, wildfires, and bottom to top ecosystem reorganizations. While their numbers increase, the distribution of the type, location, and timing of extreme events are less predictable.