Representing the Teleconnection Between the Jet Stream and Extreme Cold Air Outbreaks Over North America

Abstract

Jet streams are narrow bands of fast-flowing air in the atmosphere. Features of jet streams such as large amplitude waves can be used to quantify teleconnections leading to extreme weather. In this study, we examine extreme cold air outbreaks over three regions of North America, a region influenced by the North Pacific jet. This research provides evidence that representing the jet stream using a jet-core algorithm—a method for extracting the 3-dimensional coordinates of fast-flowing wind—could contribute new information for understanding links between the North Pacific jet and climate patterns. We demonstrate that zonal relationships between atmospheric circulation and extreme weather appear more clearly in short-term fluctations when using methods that explicitly extract the jet stream versus using geopotential, a more common technique. We highlight that spatial relationships between the jet stream and extreme conditions over North America are difficult to examine using only simple indices of climate patterns or jet characteristics.