catalyst: extreme weather, page-10

That is essential reading, Staz. It explains quite clearly how warming (and ice melting) in and around the Arctic can cause unusual weather events in the northern hemisphere, like the cold snaps and blizzards they have been seeing, as well as the intense high temperatures. I was unaware of the dry soil effect, but that makes a lot of sense, the latent heat of vapourisation of the water in moist soils would take a lot of energy out of the sun's radiation and moderate the temperature. Without that moisture, all the sun's energy goes directly into heating the environment causing much higher temperatures. The latent heat of vapourisation for water is very large and therefore must have a massive moderating effect on the climate.

Anyone who thinks warming from AGW can't cause localised cooling in some areas due to jet stream changes needs to read or watch this. Its probably on iView so I will try and watch it on there as well.