Mr. Eoin Moran:

This is the $16 million question. Largely speaking, when the atmosphere is warming, there is, on a very large scale, a fundamental change in the gradient between the tropics and the Arctic, to look at the hemisphere in a simplistic way. One impact of that is it alters the dynamics of the upper part of the atmosphere, halfway up through the atmosphere to the jet stream. The jet stream is normally kept in a strong, east to west zonal pattern but, when the gradient between the tropics and the Arctic is loosened or weakened, a lax or meandering pattern is created which can then produce this inconsistency in the weather. One manifestation of this could be the fact that we are experiencing a polar solar stratospheric warming event at the moment, which is the second polar stratospheric warming event in the past ten months. It is a manifestation of the same effect where the polar vortex is in a lax, meandering mode, producing the effects the northern hemisphere is experiencing at the moment. This is producing an inconsistency, to use the language the Senator has chosen there.

I would be glad to discuss the issue with the Senator. With the other committee members, he is very welcome to come and visit us when we can elaborate on the issue further.