Jet On Meth

Study this jetstream graphic closely. Click on it for the larger version. There are some really wild kinks and twists and turns on this jetstream. Heck, there's almost the equivalent of an "abandoned meander," in river runner terms. Look over around the UK and check out that little dipsy-doodle.

This jetstream patterns is beginning to show what we really, really hope to see--CRAZY BEHAVIOR! A crazy jetstream is a good jetstream--at least if you hope to have a wild and wooly winter with lots and lots of cold and snow. A zonal, lazy jetstream is not only boring, it rarely produces bizarre weather filled with extremes. CRAZY jets are like a rock and roll band on drugs. (See 1960's Rolling Stones.) CRAZY jets do crazy things.

A NWS Weather wonk once taught me eons ago to imagine a 19th Century wagon wheel balanced atop the North Pole. He said the jet would be the iron rim of the wheel. If things were lazy and boring all the spokes of the wheel would be the same length and the jet would be zonal and just go round and round. However, he said if the spokes go to be different lengths, then the rim would go crazy. That's the pattern we want to see--a wagon wheel gone wild!

The trick is to visualize that the wagon wheel spins round and round on the North Pole axis. Once the spokes get all out of kilter, they simply keep things out of whack all around the whole planet. It certainly looks to me like we're getting into one of those enviable patterns.

I'm tempted to break out into a river runner wild cheer but I am going to save that irrational exuberance until I know for certain that this pattern is indeed delivering the goods. (Note added 6 am 23JAN: Well, it's delivering the goods as of this morning!)