The Latent Heating Feedback on the Mid‐Latitude Circulation

Journal article

Plain Language Summary: Midlatitude storms transport water vapor poleward and upward. When ascending, the air cools, causing the vapor to condense, releasing latent heat. The latent heating boosts the ascent in which it occurs and amplifies the storms originally responsible for the heating. This circular chain of events couples latent heating and storms in a nonlinear relationship we call the latent heating feedback. We simulate an atmosphere where latent heating is static and not a consequence of warm, moist air ascending. Comparing this to an atmosphere with realistic latent heating, we show that realistic latent heating leads to more intense storms traveling further poleward, especially west of North America and Europe. Simultaneously, the longitudinally averaged jet streams and storms respond by retracting toward the equator, leaving reduced westerlies and a double jet tendency over North America and Europe. Previous works tend to focus on the effect of latent heating on the average atmospheric state. Our work shows that this effect is only part of the story and that the latent heating effect on storms directly causes regional differences that climate models struggle with.

Authors: Auestad, H; Shibu, A; Ceppi, P; Woollings, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 18
• Article number: e2025GL116437
• Publication date: 2025-09-26
• Acceptance date: 2025-08-24
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl116437
• EISSN: 1944-8007
• ISSN: 0094-8276
• Language: English
• Keywords: diabatic; latent heat; jet; storm track; climate; midlatitude