I have to jump in here. Sorry. When it is warmer in Nome Alaska than Ithaca NY 
the jet stream has a very high amplitude. Waves with high amplitude have a lot 
of energy. The jet stream derives its energy from the temperature differences 
from polar regions to the midlatitudes and subtropics. Stronger temperature 
differences lead to high amplitude patterns. So it is the intense cold at high 
latitudes that leads to stronger high amplitude patterns that dump cold air 
down here. We saw such patterns in the 1960s and 1970s too a globally cool 
period. Canada was actually quite cold last winter so we had an highly 
amplified jet stream that deposited record cold in the central U.S.  A warmer 
Canada doesn't lead to cold polar vortexes displaced south. The cold originates 
from the Arctic and Canada and becomes so expansive that it reaches our 
latitude. There also have been many instances where is can get warmer in Alaska 
and colder in the east because of a high amplitude jet stream. The brutal 
winter of 1976-77 saw record heat in Alaska in January. This happens more than 
you think. 
The cold that hit the Rockies this September originated over the land in 
northern Canada. It was clear and strong radiational cooling caused it. Global 
warming from greenhouse gases would have modified this air mass enough to 
lessen the extreme cold. It didn't happen. The cooling "power" of the land 
masses of the high latitudes remains intense. We don't get a lot of bitter cold 
air from the Arctic ocean. Its Alaska,and northern Canada where we get our cold 
from. 
    On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 08:03:46 PM EDT, Kevin J. McGowan 
<k...@cornell.edu> wrote:  
 
 
“Record cold of this magnitude is not consistent with global warming. “
 
  
 
Why not? Global warming doesn’t mean warming happens all over the globe evenly. 
I’ve been watching our area in the northeast for the last decade, thinking 
mostly about Snowy Owl incursions, and I’ve noticed strange changes in the 
distribution of cold across the arctic, perhaps changes in the “polar vortex” 
that seem to isolate the NE as a cold spot while Alaska warms up. The last ten 
years have shown Ithaca regularly with winter temperatures lower than Nome, 
Alaska. That isn’t right. 
 
  
 
Global warming at the poles doesn’t mean every place warms up, it means that 
the consistencies of weather patterns we could count on could be disrupted. 
Colder Ithaca winters and heat waves in Alaska are totally consistent with a 
global warming scenario. Freak arctic blasts into the rockies while the north 
pole melts also points to something freakishly abnormal happening, totally 
consistent with global warming.
 
  
 
Kevin
 
  
 
  
 
From: bounce-124948138-3493...@list.cornell.edu 
<bounce-124948138-3493...@list.cornell.edu>On Behalf Of david nicosia
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 7:46 PM
To: Peter Saracino <petersarac...@gmail.com>; Jody Enck <jodye...@gmail.com>
Cc: atvaw...@gmail.com; CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] New Mexico Mass Motality
 
  
 
The western U.S has a history of extreme temperature changes. This event ranks 
number 3 for the biggest temperature swing in history and it occurred during 
fall migration. Most of the other big swings in temperature
 
occurred in the winter. What is dramatic is how cold it got and the early snows 
that fell. Temperatures in parts of the Rockies fell to 9F with winds over 50 
mph. That is insanely cold for so early in the season. The Arctic high pressure 
that came across the Rockies has denser and heavier air which flows downslope 
into California, and Oregon warming by compression leading to high winds and 
VERY dry conditions. This fuels the tremendous fires.  So in a sense it is the 
brutal unseasonable cold air that is the real cause of the conditions that 
caused the fires. I assume the fires, combined with temperatures in the 80, 90s 
and 100s dropping to the teens 20s and 30s in many areas in the Rockies with 
early snows was too much for many birds to handle causing the high mortality 
rates. I have read that people are blaming climate change on this. I don't see 
it because it is the intense cold that really fueled the fires in CA and OR and 
probably had a negative effect on the birds. Record cold of this magnitude is 
not consistent with global warming. 
 
  
 
  
 
On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 05:18:09 PM EDT, Jody Enck 
<jodye...@gmail.com> wrote:
 
  
 
  
 
Thank, Pete, for passing along the Guardian article.  Additional information 
has been forthcoming recently.  Hypotheses include movements related to smoky 
conditions in some states, coupled with those weird temperature swings recorded 
last week (90 to 100 F one day and below freezing, with snow, the next day).  
Seems less likely to be a nefarious even (e.g., poisoning) than something more 
likely caused by challenging environmental factors.
 
  
 
I hope more information comes out soon.
 
 

 
Jody W. Enck, PhD
 
Conservation Social Scientist, and
 
Founder of the Sister Bird Club Network
 
607-379-5940
 
  
 
  
 
On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 5:03 PM Peter Saracino <petersarac...@gmail.com> wrote:
 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/16/birds-falling-out-of-the-sky-in-mass-die-off-in-south-western-us-aoe
 
  
 
  
 
On Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 6:47 PM Tom <atvaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
 

I just learned of the mass mortality of migrating birds in New Mexico.  I read 
a CNN report.  Is there any new information on the cause?  They’re talking 
hundreds of thousands, even millions.

Tom V

Sent from my iPhone


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