The Washington Post published another interesting article about the Antarctic anomaly yesterday, which has again been reposted by Peter Sinclair: https://climatecrocks.com/2022/03/18/antarctica-90-degrees-above-normal-nothing-to-see-here/. Scientists who were interviewed have more to say about the explanation, which they can see is related to the massive incoming atmospheric river, but no mention is made of any greenhouse energy effect. There is one bit of extraordinary information in the article that I missed because the scale on the anomaly map stops giving readings of more than +32C: “Some computer model simulations and observations suggest temperatures may have even climbed up to 90 degrees (50 Celsius) above normal in a few areas.” Today the anomaly for the entire region has dropped back to +3.7C. The images are similar to yesterday except that the locations of maximum gain in warmth, including the area above 32C, are somewhat smaller than before. I still need to show the two maps that illustrate the mechanism that made this anomaly possible in the first place. You will see that the large cavity in the high-altitude air pressure configuration is now being squeezed shut, and by tomorrow will probably be gone. The strong jet stream that has followed a looping passage over the continent as a consequence of the cavity having opened will no longer have a pathway for continuation, and it should move off to the side as suddenly as it made an entry. As it fades away so also will the extended AR and its PW, and thus the huge anomaly they caused to exist.
The Arctic also cooled off by a full degree today. No new AR is entering the zone and the one large one coming off the Atlantic is gradually losing some of its power. The overall anomaly numbers for this past week have been above the trendline of +2.2C, which is four times that of the global average. Here are the four key maps, being kept as a collective record of daily transitioning:
Carl