NASA’s Curiosity rover has found that the oxygen levels in the air in the Mars’s Gale Crater change along with the seasons on the Red Planet, rising in the spring and summer and falling during the winter. This follows Curiosity’s discovery that Martian methane also fluctuates with the seasons, andread more
Unknowncountry’s Climate Watch section has been updated for winter 2017/2018. It discusses the extreme heat in the Southern Hemisphere and the extreme cold in the Northern Hemisphere, and explains why this is happening. It points out that Winter Storm Dylan that struck the US east coast in December was structurally a precursor storm to a much larger superstorm, which could develop in that area in the future.
As already predicted in Unknown Country’s Climate Watch, it appears that westerly winds sweeping across the Pacific ocean could produce the first El Niño weather system since 2009-2010. Forecasters warn that it could be one of the most dramatic on record.
The predicted El Niño is attracting attention from experts around the globe, who are monitoring its progress with increasing interest:
“Basically it is primed for a strong El Niño, but it needs the final push,” commented Axel Timmermann, Professor of Oceanography at the International Pacific Research Centre, University of Hawaii. “This is perhaps the most-watched El Niño of all time.”
read more
As predicted on Unknowncountry.com’s Climate Watch last fall, this is proving to be a winter of extraordinary fury both in the United States and Europe. England is experiencing the worst flooding in 250 years, and winter records are being broken all across the United States. Meanwhile the Austral summer is entering the record books because of its extreme heat. But why? The reason lies in an unprecedented and unexpected change in atmospheric circulation that has caused dramatic strengthening of the Pacific Trade Winds at a time when they would normally be at a seasonal low.
read more