How does global warming cause changes to our normal weather patterns?
The jet stream drives weather patterns The jet stream is a strong wind current flowing about 10 miles above the ground. In the Northern Hemisphere, it almost always blows from west to east and always in a fairly straight line. The jet stream is extremely important to weather systems – it drives the weather patterns throughout the year. The strength of the jet stream, and to what degree it impacts our weather, is determined by the temperature difference between the Arctic and the southern half of the world. CO2 causes temperatures to rise The level of CO2 in our atmosphere has been measured atop the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii since around 1958. At the time measurements began, the CO2 measured 315 parts per million (ppm). Today it