Probing Question: What is the jet stream?

If you've seen the movie Finding Nemo, you probably recall the depiction of the "EAC," a fast-moving ocean current that the film's surfer-dude sea turtles ride with flair.

The jet stream could be viewed as something like that, except in the upper atmosphere instead of the ocean, allows climatologist Paul Knight, senior lecturer in meteorology at Penn State.

"The jet stream is a current or river of wind, usually about 200 miles wide and about two miles deep, that flows about five to seven miles above the earth's surface," says Knight, Pennsylvania's state climatologist and longtime host, writer, and producer of the University's television show Weather World.

Read the full article on Penn State Live