Kinematic processes contributing to the intensification of anomalously strong North Atlantic jets

Anomalously strong North Atlantic jets, defined in this study as jets with wind speeds exceeding 100 m·s−1, are notable due to their potential to induce high‐impact weather. This study examines the kinematic processes that contribute to the intensification of anomalously strong North Atlantic jets, as well as the variability in those processes across a large number of events. Anomalously strong jets are objectively identified during September–May 1979–2018 within the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis and composited to reveal the synoptic‐scale flow evolution associated with jet intensification. The analysis demonstrates that anomalously strong North Atlantic jets are most frequent during the winter compared with the fall and spring, and that their development is preceded by low‐level warm‐air advection, poleward moisture advection, and moist ascent within the warm conveyor belt of a surface cyclone beneath the equatorward jet‐entrance region. A diagnosis of the irrotational and nondivergent components of the ageostrophic wind within the near‐jet environment reveals that both wind components facilitate jet intensification via their nonnegligible contributions to negative potential vorticity (PV) advection and PV frontogenesis in the vicinity of the dynamic tropopause. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations of a jet event from December 2013 with and without latent heating further suggest that the ageostrophic wind field within the near‐jet environment is substantially modulated by latent heating. The foregoing results indicate that a diagnosis of jet intensification during anomalously strong jet events is dependent on an accurate representation of the cumulative effects of latent heating within the near‐jet environment. Anomalously strong North Atlantic jets are notable due to their potential to induce high‐impact weather. This study examines the kinematic processes that contribute to the development of anomalously strong North Atlantic jets during September–May 1979–2018 using a potential vorticity framework. The analysis reveals that a complete diagnosis of jet intensification requires consideration of the nondivergent and irrotational components of the ageostrophic wind, as well as the cumulative effects of latent heating on the ageostrophic wind distribution within the near‐jet environment.