RE: Impact of climate change on all of this?
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Really good question and is one we should tackle in the future in consultation w/ some experts on the topic. The short answer is that it is not completely obvious how climate change will impact the Northern Hemisphere polar vortexes and jets-- there is a lot of scientific debate on this question. Climate change models, generally, project that the tropospheric jet stream will shift poleward in response to greenhouse gas forcings. Here is one article by Tim Woollings which does a nice job explaining the various moving parts and complexities. Also, on this blog, Tom previously covered the question of whether sea ice melt (a climate change signal) might influence the middle latitude weather, so check this out.