About 20,000 years ago, large ice sheets loomed over North America, and researchers thought the ice, itself, pushed storms south, drenching the Southwest and leaving the Pacific Northwest dry. Now, a new CIRES-led study finds that ocean temperatures are the real culprit behind the dramatic shift in atmospheric circulation. The work, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters suggests that West Coast precipitation patterns are tightly linked to changes in Pacific Ocean temperatures.
Click here for original story, Ocean temperature patterns drive the West’s wintertime storm tracks
Source: Phys.org