To the Editor:

As we’ve seen, recent weather events have been unusual for this part of the country.

Due primarily to the rotation of our planet and to the tilting of our planet, which at its maximum gives us the winter season in the northern hemisphere, which results in the atmospheric conditions called the polar jet stream, a super mass of very turbulent and very cold atmosphere that traditionally is contained largely within and a few degrees south of the polar circle. However, with the gradual melting of the glaciers, the jet stream is no longer contained within the polar circle. An analogy is in order:

We all have been made aware by climatologists that, for example, a Category Five hurricane in the ocean will quickly reduce its fury to a tropical storm once it encounters mountainous terrain. The dynamics affecting the polar jet stream are very similar.

The past existence of numerous glaciers a their peak contained the turbulent and unbearable polar jet stream within the polar circle. However, their diminished size due to climate change are no longer able to contain the ferocious nature of the jet stream, where heavy snowfall and cold winter temperatures occasionally occur as far south as Texas or Florida, and more frequently several miles south of the polar circle.

Peter Alagna

55 Head O’ Meadow Road, Newtown November 18, 2019

Editor’s note: Mr Alagna received his degree in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from New York University. He is a former chairman of the Water Pollution Control Authority.