Jet Stream

Thanks to a ducking-and-weaving jet stream and a colossal low-pressure system nearby, Baltimore was hit this week with the season's first cold punch, dropping temperatures to about five to 10 degrees below normal. The East Coast has plunged into lower-than-normal temperatures and area residents are bundling up - dragging out winter clothing that remained tucked away after an unseasonably warm fall. "Could you close that door?" asked Kiyetta N. Shird, slinging coffee at XandO in Charles Village, after a group of five entered.

The Blizzard of '83 was just a gleam in a weatherman's eye the second Tuesday of that year's February, when a low-pressure system entered the country from the cold Pacific Ocean and resolutely headed for the Rocky Mountains.It was over northeastern Nevada by the next day, and the weather forecasters, poring over their charts and checking their computers, began to utter a U.S. Weather Service equivalent of "Uh-Oh." At noon Wednesday, the service issued a winter-storm watch for the East Coast.

You might call it a January thaw - if there were any snow and ice out there to melt away in this April-like weather. Clear skies, bright sunshine and a steady flow of warm air from the southwest pushed yesterday's temperatures into the 70s in the Baltimore area. The high at BWI Marshall Airport was 70 degrees. It reached 63 in Annapolis before a bay breeze kicked up in the afternoon and dragged readings back to 49. But cities in central Virginia basked in 70-degree weather and temperature records tumbled from Chicago to Atlantic City.

What causes tornadoes? In Tornado Alley, where a tornado killed at least 24 people in Moore, Okla., Monday, the disasters are relatively frequent when moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meets dry, cool air from the Rocky Mountains. Instability caused by such differences in air temperatures fuels even common thunderstorms. But in the case of the Moore tornado, the severity was increased because of a particularly strong blast of cool air from the jet stream mixing with warm Gulf air that built up over the weekend, explained AccuWeather.com's Henry Margusity . The moist air moves in low to the ground, without any geographic obstructions over the flat Midwest.

Ben McKnew writes from Pasadena: "Is it possible to see the jet stream, maybe in the clouds? How wide is it? ... Where do you stand on global warming?" In 85 words? Sheesh ... Jet streams are too high (six to nine miles) and too wide (200 to 300 miles) to be discerned from the ground. Global warming? There's little scientific doubt the planet is warming, and humans play a role. The debate is over rates, consequences and what we should do about it.

As with any other new cooking device, the more use you giv the Jet-Stream oven, the better results you will get.Soon you will be adapting your old favorites. Here are a couple of recipe adapting guidelines from the booklet that comes with the oven:*Temperature will remain the same in most cases. If the recipe calls for 425 to 475 degrees, use the 400-degree setting.*Reduce your cooking time from one-half to one-third of the time called for in your traditional recipe.*Experiment with the fan speed.

Jet lag may be an inevitable part of international travel, but another unpleasant aspect - waiting in line at passport control - will soon be bypassed by some people flying into London. Instead, they will gain entry to Britain by directing their eyes toward a camera. Last week, the EyeTicket Corp. announced that a trial program of a system using iris-scanning technology to identify passengers would begin this fall at Heathrow Airport. The trial of what the company calls its JetStream Passenger Processing System will involve up to 2,000 American and Canadian passengers on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways flights into Heathrow.

LAUREL -- Two Maryland favorites added a surprising twist to an old rivalry in the sixth $75,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Handicap yesterday. In the end, seniority prevailed.Due North, a 9-year-old gelding making his 102nd career start, beat 7-year-old Baldski's Choice by a neck."I really didn't think he could win today," said winning trainer Katy Voss, agreeing with the Laurel Race Course and Pimlico inter-track crowd that made Due North a 16-1 shot, "but I did think he'd run good."Due North won the Johnson Memorial last year, but Voss was concerned that a nine-week layoff leading to yesterday's race was too much to overcome.

Fairy Tales Can Come True: How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny, by Rikki Klieman with Peter Knobler. Regan Books. 384 pages. $25.95. Klieman, of course, is the razor-edged woman who, working for Court TV, was only slightly less visible than O.J. Simpson during his murder trial. She continues as an anchor on the channel but that sub-career is but a small bit of a life so packed with obsessive success that long ago, it might well have exploded. Her first ambition was to be an actress.