First Alert Weather In-Depth: The teleconnection of our weather

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Over the last several months there seems to be a lot of pictures of significant flooding around the county.

Nobody wants to see this, especially in our part of the country. But how do we explain these massive storms?

There are a lot of ingredients involved, but it really comes down to an atmospheric element called a teleconnection.

A teleconnection can cover thousands of miles. Recently, over the Pacific Ocean near the Gulf of Alaska, energy from a typhoon reached the polar jet stream. It may be helpful to think of the jet stream like a super highway, and that highway can transport and enhance the storms development. Like a piece of string, if you push down on the string, that energy is transferred down the stream.

Not to overuse my list of metaphors, but this is similar to ripples or waves on a pond. Eventually, that energy can reach your location.

This teleconnection in the Pacific Ocean will soon reach Western New York with some interested effects in the coming days.

As a result, News10NBC’s Glenn Johnson always tries to remember that teleconnections eventually have a local connection to our weather.