We are jumping from anomaly to anomaly.
This year, the southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds (NLC) season is the earliest southern hemisphere season on record… tied with 2013.
The 2016/17 southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds season started on November 17, 2016. This is, tied with 2013, the earliest southern hemisphere NLC season on record.
Not a surprise at all for scientists: “as the southern hemisphere polar stratospheric winds switched to their summer-like state quite early this year.” And why please?
For example, the 2014/15 season was also totally strange. The clouds were much more variable, and there was an enormous decrease in cloud frequency 15 to 25 days after the summer solstice. But that’s when the clouds are usually most abundant…
The strange behavior of noctilucent clouds in 2014/15 could be a sign of previously unknown linkages as it is now known that NLCs are sensitive indicators of long-range teleconnections in Earth’s atmosphere – a link between weather and climate across hemispheres.
So why are we seeing these blue electric clouds at always lower latitudes? And why do they often get started in earlier months as well?