Most peoples tend to be provincial, and that's understandable, given the many things that we are able to manipulate are local in nature. Nevertheless, much of human history has been shaped by outside forces impinging on the local scene. We've seen this up close and personal in the El Paso region, where drought hundreds of miles away turns off the water faucets. And most of us are aware that El Niño, originating far from the desert Southwest, has notable local impact.
As we learn more about climate, far-distant happenings take on intense
local interest. In November 2002, researchers followed a broad, thick patch of clouds
eastward from the Indian Ocean, over the Indonesian Pacific, and then, as a vast,
undulating upper-air current—a Rossby wave—to the north and east. Before
the storms spawned by this monster subsided, the central U.S. was wracked by swarms of
tornados, the oil tanker Prestige sank off the coast of Spain causing an
ecological disaster, and flooding and tremendous winds plummeted parts of Europe. Local
devastations, but triggered half a world away.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Kerr, R. A. 2003. Huge Pacific waves trigger wild weather half a world away. Science 300:1081.