Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
Slower Gulf Stream, planet warmer on average, it would be surprising if the net effect of climate change was to make Eastern North America actually cooler.
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The scenario of both ends of the country experiencing opposite trends also seems more likely than mere independent random chance would allow. And it makes sense when you think about weather as mostly due to warm and cool air (or wet and dry) moving around from one place to another (i.e. the earth doesn't really have "warm" or "cool" days; solar radiation is pretty constant). When the cold arctic air moves south, other air tends to replace that from somewhere else. We don't see the creation of extra actic air during the cold periods. Hence when some unusual area is experiencing arctic outflow patterns, somewhere else is going to be warmer than average.
The Maple Creek stuff is funny. I visited the Prairies around Victoria Day weekend this year and it was maybe +4 with wind and rain in the early afternoon one day where I was. Maple Creek fell to -5.4 on May 19. The average high was 17 but this was a mix of +30 and +4 days in May, which I do not personally consider desirable at either end. Prairie weather is all over the place.