SNOW IN SUMMER? WHY?
Yesterday was the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And yet, as was reported in all the news, it snowed in Colorado.
Why? Isn’t summer hot? Meteorologists tried to explain it with a “La Nina” effect. La Nina is a hot area in the Pacific. Just how does a hot area produce snow?
QUICK ANSWER
A hot area on this planet does not produce snow. Only cold air and water vapor produces snow.
WHERE DID THE COLD AIR COME FROM?
High above your head there are Jet Streams. Here is a Wiki description of Jet Streams:
“Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents found in the atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. The main jet streams are located near the tropopause, the transition between the troposphere (where temperature decreases with altitude) and the stratosphere (where temperature increases with altitude).
The major jet streams on Earth are westerly winds (flowing west to east). Their paths typically have a meandering shape; jet streams may start, stop, split into two or more parts, combine into one stream, or flow in various directions including the opposite direction of most of the jet.
The strongest jet streams are the polar jets, at around 7—12 km (23,000—39,000 ft) above sea level, and the higher and somewhat weaker subtropical jets at around 10—16 km (33,000—52,000 ft). The northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere each have both a polar jet and a subtropical jet. The northern hemisphere polar jet flows over the middle to northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia and their intervening oceans, while the southern hemisphere polar jet mostly circles Antarctica all year round.
Jet streams are caused by a combination of a planet’s rotation on its axis and atmospheric heating (by solar radiation and, on some planets other than Earth, internal heat). The Coriolis effect describes how a planet’s surface and atmosphere rotate fastest at the planet’s equator while rotating relatively slowly at the poles. Jet streams form near boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as the polar region and the warmer air towards the equator.”
And, here is the Wiki diagram:
You can easily see that jet streams bring cold air from the north pole to the upper part of the U.S. This would include Colorado.
WHY ARE JET STREAMS COMING DOWN?
If you take a top and spin it, you will see that it wobbles. If the top had wavy lines on it we could imagine they were jet streams. If the top grew bigger so would the wobbles.
The wavy lines would come from the top of the top to the middle of the top. Cold jet streams would bring cold air from the north to the south.
WHY SHOULD THE PLANET GET BIGGER?
Heat anything and it expands. That includes the earth and its atmosphere.
