Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L08803 doi:10.1029/2008GL033614 (2008)

Three bands of fast-moving wind — known as jet streams — have shifted position in recent decades, according to a new analysis of weather data that were collected between 1979 and 2001.

Shifts in the jet streams are expected in a changing climate, and the work by Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California, looked at observational records for any such effects. They report that the northern jet stream weakened, and that one of the southern jet streams weakened whereas the other strengthened. All three jet streams moved higher in altitude and closer to the poles, by about 19 kilometres per decade.