So, this may seem like a weird topic, but I have a reason for it. Does anyone know what atmospheric rivers would have been like during the last ice age (or glacial period, to use the technical term)? Particularly around 70,000 - 45,000 years ago. I'm working on a theory, and I want to know if atmospheric rivers could play a role. Would they have been in different locations? Would they be stronger or weaker? Would they be the same as they are now?

 

For instance, could you have an atmospheric river forming over australia? Or the middle east? or east africa? china maybe? Meteorology really isn't my area of expertise, but its important to my theory. I would appreciate help here.

For those of us that don't know or are just as thick as me can you tell us what an atmospheric river is please.

So, this may seem like a weird topic, but I have a reason for it. Does anyone know what atmospheric rivers would have been like during the last ice age (or glacial period, to use the technical term)? Particularly around 70,000 - 45,000 years ago. I'm working on a theory, and I want to know if atmospheric rivers could play a role. Would they have been in different locations? Would they be stronger or weaker? Would they be the same as they are now?

 

For instance, could you have an atmospheric river forming over australia? Or the middle east? or east africa? china maybe? Meteorology really isn't my area of expertise, but its important to my theory. I would appreciate help here.

I don't know how one would infer the condition of jet streams so far back as you mention, however this article describes using rainfall patterns to model jet streams back 4000 years.

Frigid Winter? Blame 4,000 Years of Wild Jet Streams

For those of us that don't know or are just as thick as me can you tell us what an atmospheric river is please.

 

I had never heard of them before, either:

 

An atmospheric river is a narrow corridor or filament of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Atmospheric rivers consist of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor transport, typically along the boundaries between large areas of divergent surface air flow, including some frontal zones in association with extratropical cyclones that form over the oceans.^[1][2][3][4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river

Makes sense, there are subterranean rivers, ocean currents, etc. Compared to these though, such atmospheric rivers seem much more mutable.

 

What seems reasonable to me is that during a glaciation less water vapor would be available due to less vigorous circulation on the continents and polar oceans, more water temporarily sequestered in ice sheets.

 

It would be nice to learn more on the subject.