The Guardian

Weatherwatch: volcanoes and their effect on winds and global weather

Meteorologists are studying historical records to try to understand the behaviour of the equatorial jet
One of William Ascroft’s watercolours of vivid sunsets seen from Chelsea, London, in autumn 1883 after Krakatoa erupted. Photograph: Bodleian Libraries/University of Oxford

Our weather is strongly influenced by what’s happening in the upper atmosphere. For example, high-level equatorial winds, known as the “equatorial jet”, swing between easterlies and westerlies roughly every two years.

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