News Exercise #271

1. She didn’t explain very clearly (she is not a native speaker) but how did she explain the reason for the cold weather despite global warming?
2. What is causing the current warm weather in western USA?
3. What is the overall balance between extreme heat and extreme cold?
4. What is expected in the future?

Answers:
1. She didn’t explain very clearly (she is not a native speaker) but how did she explain the reason for the cold weather despite global warming?
Warm air from the lower latitudes is being pushed into the Arctic, and that then pushes the cold weather into other regions. This is called the polar vortex, and is consistent with the idea of global warming.
2. What is causing the current warm weather in western USA?
It is due to the meandering path that the jetstream is taking, affected by the polar vortex. There is a “whiplash” (a very sudden change of pattern) of temperatures.
3. What is the overall balance between extreme heat and extreme cold?
In recent years we have seen more extreme heat records occurring than extreme cold records.
4. What is expected in the future?
We are expecting to see a lot more warm extremes, heatwaves, and various different kinds of extreme events.