The Storm Pipe
February 6, 1998
By Mark Hoover
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I should have sensed that something was wrong. At 12:05 pm
yesterday, the airline upgraded me from steerage to first
class, no charge, for my afternoon flight to Alaska - the
starting point for a journey into the jetstream . This is no
small matter on a nine-hour flight. For five minutes, I
debated whether I would have the hors d'ouevres
before or after the movie. And then at 12:10
pm, meteorologist Nick Bond called and said today's research
flight over the Gulf of Alaska had been cancelled.
El Niño got me again.
Nick and his colleagues, Mel Shapiro and Rolf Langland, have
been conducting research this winter from Anchorage and
Honolulu. (Mel's getting the suntan, and Nick's getting the
frostbite.) On Monday, you recall, we flew with CALJET out
of Monterey to find out what an El Niño winter storm
looks like from the inside, as it approaches the coast. Nick
and the rest of the NORPEX crew look at the other end of the
storm pipe, where the storms form in the north Pacific,
thousands of miles away. They are particularly interested in
how upper level winds and the jetstream change the path that
these storms travel.
That's why I was on my way to Anchorage. We had planned to
join Nick Bond in an Air Force C-130 turbojet to investigate
the jetstream, and the winds
that nurture the storms pounding the west coast. Changes in
these 200 mph rivers of air that circle the earth in higher
latitudes are what make an El Niño winter a fearsome
thing.
Nick said that a new pattern of intense storm generation has
emerged in the last few weeks, an ideal opportunity for the
research NORPEX has been conducting. But the weather (as
well as the grueling schedule) has been beating up the
planes. The plane we were to fly on tomorrow is down for
repairs, and won't be fixed in time.
I think the real reason for the cancellation is that Nick's
feet couldn't take another 10 hours standing in the frosty
back end of the military plane. Without insulation, the
plane's metal floor stays around zero degrees, and the only
thing you have to look forward to is a cold Air Force lunch.
Such are the sacrifices made in the name of science.
This may be a blessing in disguise. Because of the dramatic
southerly shift in the jetstream this past week, the NORPEX
researchers are right now considering relocating the flights
to Portland, Oregon. We may get another shot at the
jetstream this Tuesday out of Portland, just in time for
another huge storm coming in, and before I head to warmer
climes—Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands—and the
heart of El Niño.
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Photo: USAF