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“And so we have to go from talking about ‘500 millibar geopotential heights’ that a really small audience appreciates and understands, to something that captures the essence of the event.

Jain had previously worked with other researchers to develop a method for evaluating such extreme weather events by looking at anomalies in geopotential heights, which indicate whether there are high or low pressure systems in the upper atmosphere.

The grainy video and barely-there colors are a far cry from the splashy model outputs of today, but all the climate indicators you’d expect are there from the familiar—precipitation and high and low pressure systems—to the weather-nerd friendly—geopotential heights and atmospheric temperature.

One study found that climate did directly affect the “geopotential heights” in the region—corresponding to high and low pressure in the atmosphere—but did not find a direct link between those pressures and actual changes in temperature and precipitation leading to the drought.