Climate change intensified N. America heat wave
There is a consensus among scientists about thermodynamic processes, the increasingly warm atmosphere and its increased capacity for moisture. However, there is another factor that some experts believe is probably contributing to extreme weather events such as the floods in Europe this week and the recent heat wave on the west coast of the US and Canada, but this has yet to be determined conclusively.
It concerns the air currents, which ensure that high-pressure and low-pressure areas in Europe s temperate latitudes tend to move on quickly. Climate researchers such as Andreas Fink believe that the jet stream, a westerly wind that blows at a height of about nine kilometers around the North Pole, has lost momentum in recent years, causing waves in what used to be a steady air flow.