Weatherwatch: how typhoons in Korea made California wildfires worse

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by rustoo

Last year California suffered its worst series of wildfires, including five of the most destructive six fires on record, all driven by unseasonal winds. New research suggests that the driving winds originated from an unexpected source: typhoons in Korea. The study highlights how events in one region can create a domino effect felt thousands of miles away.

A paper by South Korean and American scientists in Geophysical Letters points the finger at three massive storms that hit the Korean peninsula in quick succession over August and September. The researchers say a single typhoon would have little effect, but the unusual combination of three of them over just 12 days was sufficient to perturb the jet stream. This resulted in an effect known as an atmospheric wave train, which crossed the Pacific and changed the pattern of air flow over North America.

The net result in California was a zone with the lowest atmospheric pressures seen for 40 years, with correspondingly powerful and enduring winds. These winds literally fanned the flames, turning minor wildfires into major conflagrations.

The researchers point to the implication of interconnected global weather systems: in future we are likely to see increasing numbers of extreme weather events, some of which may have impacts far beyond the region where they occur.

Chimie45 on February 16th, 2021 at 06:30 UTC »

Last year here in Korea we had an unusual "Rainy Season". Korea doesn't really get monsoons, those are more of a South East Asia thing, while Korea's weather is more comparable to a place like Michigan. That being said, in late July to early August, there is a 3 week span where there will be a half dozen rainy days which people call the rainy season.

Last year however was absolutely bonkers. We had 40 straight days of rain, over which three typhoons hit the peninsula. A normal typhoon season might see 1-2 typhoons make landfall, as most of them curl back and hit Japan or loop south and hit the Philippines. Last year though we had I wanna say 5 or 6 total.

Additionally this winter has been one of the absolute wettest in a long while. Korea used to be known as quite a snowy place, but for the past decade or so, it mostly has been snow-free with only 1-3 snowfalls all winter, with the snow almost never sticking around longer than maybe a day. The last big snowy winter was 2011~2012. However this winter we've gotten a dozen large snow storms with flurries over many other days and the snow has been sticking around most of the time too.

chessmasterjj on February 16th, 2021 at 03:10 UTC »

Damn, so the butterfly effect is real?

Viewfromthe31stfloor on February 16th, 2021 at 02:22 UTC »

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting.