Deep Freeze Europe faced a very diff erent weather problem two recent winters in a row. Normally, winters in Europe are damp and chilly. T ey’re usually not too cold, though. T is time, temperatures fell—and fell, and fell. On some days, they never rose above -17°C (0°F). Rivers froze. Blizzards buried towns in snow


and trapped people in their homes. One deep freeze lasted for three weeks. Meteorologists looked at the wind for clues.


One wind is extra cold. It’s called the polar jet stream. It carries freezing air from the Arctic. Normally, it stays up near the North Pole. T is time, though, it was dipping farther


south than normal. It blew cold Arctic air across Europe. It even blew across parts of northern Africa, dumping snow there. Here’s an even more surprising part. Some


meteorologists think warming may have led to the deep freeze. T ey aren’t quite sure how. But they think that warmer temperatures in the Arctic may be aff ecting the polar jet stream. T ey may be pushing this wind off its normal path. It will take more weather watching to find out if that’s what’s happening.


Weather Watch Meteorologists also are watching what’s going on with tropical cyclones. T ese giant, spinning storms form over the ocean. T ey soak up water and energy from warm seas. T ey’re part of normal weather patterns. Sometimes, though, they become monster storms. T at’s what happened last fall. A tropical


cyclone called Typhoon Haiyan roared across the Pacific Ocean. It slammed into the Phillipines, tossing cars and fishing boats. It ripped roofs off houses and blasted out windows. It flattened whole towns. With winds gusts of up to 380 km (236 miles) per hour, the typhoon was the strongest ever to hit land. Some meteorologists worry that a warming


planet will fuel more monster storms like Haiyan. T ey’ll have to wait and watch weather patterns to find out.


22 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


Preparing for the Worst T ere’s one thing that meteorologists do predict with confidence. Earth will continue to heat up. Temperatures could rise another 4.4°C (8°F) by the end of this century. So many weather experts predict that more extreme weather is on its way. Some people aren’t waiting to find out.


T ey’re already preparing for the worst. In Bangladesh, for example, the government has built hundreds of cyclone shelters. T ey can keep people safe during the worst storms. Farmers also have built floating raſt s out


of a flower that grows in the water. T ey plant their gardens on these raſt s. When cyclones or flooding rains come, the gardens will float on the rising water. T ey won’t be washed away and destroyed.


A farmer works in his fl oating garden. Gardens like this can survive fl oods.


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