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Atmospheric Blocking Increase

Climate change is thought to increase the frequency of large scale atmospheric pressure patterns with little or no movement—referred to as atmospheric blocking—by increasing changes in planetary wave activity that causes the atmospheric equivalent of a traffic jam.[1] Studies have begun to identify an anthropogenic component in recent blocking events that drove sustained extreme weather, including the 2003 European heatwave, the 2010 Moscow wildfires, the 2011 Texas and Oklahoma drought, the 2011-2016 California drought, and the 2018 Northern Hemisphere heat wave.[2][3]

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