Climate scientists have long watched the jet stream with fascination and growing concern. These rivers of air racing across our planet at altitudes of roughly 5-9 miles dictate much of our day-to-day ...

Heavy precipitation, wind storms, heat waves—when severe weather events such as these occur they are frequently attributed to a wavy jet stream. The jet stream is a powerful air current in the upper ...

The jet stream also played a role in the 2025 hurricane season. Given its west-to-east wind direction, the southward dip of the jet stream—along with a weak high pressure system over the ...

Summer 2024 was officially the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest on record. In the United States, fierce heat waves seemed to hit somewhere almost every day. Overall, the global average temperature was ...

The summer of 2025 brought unprecedented flash flooding across the U.S., with the central and eastern regions hit particularly hard. These storms claimed hundreds of lives across Texas, Kentucky and ...

The daily weather we experience is largely shaped by atmospheric conditions nearly 30,000 feet above us, where a key factor is the weather phenomenon known as the jet stream. Think of a jet stream as ...

If you’ve ever heard a meteorologist mention the jet stream and thought, “Okay… but what does that actually mean?” You’re not alone. It’s one of the most important drivers of weather across the United ...