Solar storms can suppress rain and snow over parts of North America, new study finds
A new study from the University of New Hampshire finds that powerful geomagnetic storms can suppress rain and snow over parts of North America within a single day. The effect is strongest over the Rocky Mountains and around Hudson Bay, and the stronger the storm, the sharper the drop. The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Space weather may be quietly reshaping parts of North America’s forecast. A new study from the University of New Hampshire, published in Geophysical Research Letters, finds that powerful geomagnetic storms, the disturbances created when solar energy strikes Earth’s magnetic field, can suppress rain and snow within a single day. The researcher paired 67 years of hourly storm measurements with an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the atmosphere over the continent. Two regions stood out: the Rocky Mountains of the western United States and the area around Hudson Bay in northern Canada, where precipitation dropped after a storm. The stronger the storm, the sharper the decline, and storms in summer or winter had a much greater effect than those in spring or fall. The short-term signal was up to 100 times larger than the slow solar influence scientists usually track. The leading explanation runs through the polar vortex, which the author calls a candidate rather than a settled fact. If confirmed, the finding gives water and energy planners a factor their long-range models have so far ignored. Source: University of New Hampshire / Geophysical Research Letters.