Kind: captions
Language: en
have you taken a flight recently and
found it unusually bumpy turns out it's
not in your head turbulence is actually
getting worse you're probably already
familiar with one cause of turbulence
thunderstorms and mountain ranges can
also cause bumps in the flight path too
usually down wind from the ridge but one
kind you might be less familiar with has
been increasing too since 1979
scientists have seen a 55% increase in
severe clear air turbulence over the
North Atlantic and it's virtually un
detectable by pilots until it's too late
some turbulence including clear air
turbulence is caused in part by wind
shear dramatic changes to wind speeds or
directions over short distances and
altitudes and an increase in wind shear
can lead to more severe turbulence
especially on flight paths intersecting
with the jet stream in the North
Atlantic the jet stream is a band of
wind in the upper atmosphere that flows
from west to east and is often at the
boundary between hot and cold regions
turbulence is also increasing over the
southern hemisphere but aircraft ially
don't fly over the South Pole to cross
from one continent to another scientists
think climate change may be to blame for
the uptick in all of this turbulence as
the planet warms some regions are
heating up faster than others especially
the Arctic this results in a smaller
temperature difference between the warm
and cold air regions forming the jet
stream destabilizing it and leading to
more turbulence but just because there's
more turbulence doesn't mean you'll
encounter it more often when you fly
weather experts are getting better at
predicting where severe turbulence will
happen and Pilots have access to more
detailed forecast before takeoff still
experts suggest that the best way to
stay safe is to always be ready most
importantly stay buckled unless you're
actively moving about the cabin