What a Serbian cave tells you about the weather 2,500 years ago
Like ice cores, stalagmites preserve a long record of the climate
IF YOU LIVE in northern Europe or North America, your weather depends partly on what the northern polar jet stream is up to. Jet streams are powerful and persistent winds that snake around the Earth from west to east, several miles above the surface. The meanderings of the northern polar jet stream can bring cold air down from the Arctic over the American Midwest, or send waves of Atlantic storms crashing into Ireland or Scandinavia.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The weather underground”
From the October 21st 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Science & technology
Are ice baths good for you?
They won’t hurt. Actually they might, a bit
Why carbon monoxide could appeal to the discerning doper
Professional cycling is debating whether to ban the poisonous gas
A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin
How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery
Heritable Agriculture, a Google spinout, is bringing AI to crop breeding
By reducing the cost of breeding, the firm hopes to improve yields and other properties for an array of important crops
Could supersonic air travel make a comeback?
Boom Supersonic’s demonstrator jet exceeds Mach 1
Should you worry about microplastics?
Little is known about the effects on humans—but limiting exposure to them seems prudent