Raspberries & Decomposing Wood: The "Nurse Log" Connection

 

Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) have a strong, ecologically documented affinity for sites rich in decomposing wood, dead stumps, and fallen logs — and it's no coincidence. Several interlocking factors drive this relationship.

They Are Pioneer Disturbance Species

Wild red raspberries are classic pioneer plants — they rapidly colonize sites where the forest canopy has been opened up and trees are dying or have fallen. Research published in the Northern Journal of Applied Forestry found that Rubus becomes the most prominent vegetation within 2–3 years following heavy overstory disturbances (logging, fire, windthrow) at mesic temperate forest sites. When a tree dies and begins to decompose, it creates precisely the conditions raspberries are adapted to exploit: open light, disturbed soil, and a flush of released nutrients.^[1][2][3]

The Decomposing Wood Nutrient Cascade

As wood rots, it releases a slow, steady supply of nutrients — nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium — that were locked inside the tree's biomass for decades. Decomposing logs also act as sponges, concentrating moisture and accelerating local soil development. Raspberries are shallow-rooted and thrive in this rich, moist, organic-matter-laden layer directly above and around rotting wood. Research confirms that soil organic matter (SOM) content is positively related to single berry weight and branch yield of wild raspberry, largely because SOM increases water-holding capacity in the soil.^[4][5][6]

The Mycorrhizal Fungal Network

This is arguably the most fascinating part. Rotting wood is teeming with fungal networks — both saprotrophic fungi (which break down dead wood) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that colonize plant roots. Raspberries form strong mycorrhizal associations: studies show AMF colonize approximately 91% of raspberry roots in both wild and farmed settings. When raspberries grow near decomposing stumps and root systems, they tap into pre-existing fungal webs that supply phosphorus, nitrogen, and water in exchange for photosynthetic sugars. A 2025 study confirmed that inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi (Trichoderma spp. and Glomus sp.) significantly improves root hair density, lateral root numbers, and overall plant vigor in Rubus idaeus.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Why Old Root Systems Matter

Decomposing tree roots are especially valuable because they leave behind intact fungal highway networks in the soil. As the old root channels rot, they create aerated pathways that raspberry rhizomes can follow — essentially using the ghost-architecture of the dead tree as a road map for colonization. The decaying root carbon also feeds the soil food web of bacteria and fungi that raspberries depend on.^[5]

The Practical Takeaway for Your Garden

This ecology translates directly to practice:

• Hugelkultur-style beds (burying logs under soil) mimic this phenomenon and are excellent for raspberries
• Aged wood chips — not fresh — provide the same slow-release nutrient and moisture benefits^[11]
• Avoid oak or walnut decomposing wood near raspberries, as both produce allelopathic chemicals harmful to the plants^[12]
• Fresh wood chips temporarily lock up nitrogen as they decompose, so aged material is always preferable^[12]

In short, what you're observing is a textbook example of successional ecology: raspberries evolved alongside dying and fallen trees in temperate forests, and they have adapted to exploit the precise nutrient, moisture, and fungal conditions that decomposing wood creates. It's one of nature's most elegant recycling partnerships.

⁂

• https://academic.oup.com/njaf/article/23/4/288/4779990 
• https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=261671&isprofile=0&pt=7 
• https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2018-12/February 2017 FP Red Raspberry.pdf 
• https://www.fs.usda.gov/pnw/pubs/pnw_rn576.pdf 
• https://forest.moscowfsl.wsu.edu/smp/solo/documents/GTRs/INT_280/Edmonds_INT-280.php  
• https://agris.fao.org/search/en/providers/122575/records/669f70f000eb85b7d72cfb2b 
• https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/994/ 
• https://kr.ipp.gov.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/227 
• https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0379-39822020000400114 
• https://www.frp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/fungi-article-autumn20.pdf 
• https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/510662/ 
• https://ask.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=386342  
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/94461079696/posts/10160222105789697/ 
• https://ask.metafilter.com/348736/Can-I-place-compost-on-top-of-wood-chips-around-my-raspberry-bushes 
• https://academic.oup.com/njaf/article-abstract/23/4/288/4779990 
• https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/blogs/fruit/how-grow-raspberry-bushes 
• https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2093/2019/12/Whitney_SFC2019.pdf 
• https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1522&context=etdr 
• https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ec-1306-growing-raspberries-your-home-garden 
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07060661.2021.2011420 
• https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/raspberries/grow-your-own 
• https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriservice-bc/production-guides/berries/raspberries 
• https://www.foodforest.garden/2012/07/29/raspberries/ 
• https://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/bod/en/pub/pub/pub_detail.php?id_obj=14099 
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12489302/ 
• https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1903&context=etd 
• https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/rubpho/all.html 
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989422001615 
• https://edepot.wur.nl/537906 
• https://real-j.mtak.hu/22928/3/AEER_2014_12_3_.pdf 
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/302511393792359/posts/1546364589407027/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/howtoloveaforest/posts/whats-a-nurse-logif-youve-spent-enough-time-in-forests-youve-probably-come-acros/122225194178061323/ 
• https://newfoundland-labradorflora.ca/flora/dview/?id=1062 
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112718304894 
• https://practicalselfreliance.com/wild-raspberry/ 
• http://www.plantgrower.org/raspberry.html 
• https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/rubus/idaeus/ 
• https://rngr.net/publications/tpn/37-2/raspberry-rubus-idaeus-l.-competition-effects-on-balsam-fir-abies-balsamea-l.-mill.-seedlings-in-northern-maine/at_download/file 
• https://agroposta.com/raspberry 
• https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Rubus+idaeus 
• https://ace-lab.ca/assets_b/Larsen_etal_2018_ForEcoMngt.pdf 
• https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2020/nrs_2020_ristau_001.pdf 

AI - A two edged sword

 

Op Ed by Helge Nome

I have now interacted intensively with AI over the last 18 months. or so, and have developed some reflective ideas in that regard.

A very useful tool, indeed. No doubt about that. AI can amplify the productivity of any researcher by an order of magnitude, if used intelligently in most settings.

AI is also designed to be able to develop personal relationships with humans, and so be in a unique position to influence human attitudes and behaviour.

It is controlled by the same people who control social media and other online tools, serving THEIR wants and needs, mostly for power and control of others.

Massive amounts of capital are currently being poured into the AI bucket by those who see an opportunity to multiply their fortunes and become a “top dog” a-la Elon Musk.

So, the development pattern seems to point towards an ever tightening noose around the neck of Humanity as each individual is being analyzed and categorized as a commodity by emerging technologies.

What comes next??

Germany: The Chain from Versailles to Hyperinflation

 

The link between coal mining and Weimar hyperinflation runs through a direct, step-by-step chain of cause and effect, rooted in the Treaty of Versailles (1919).^[1]

Versailles: Coal as Reparations

When World War I ended, the victorious Allies designed the reparations regime in the Treaty of Versailles to extract Germany's industrial wealth — and coal was explicitly central to this. Germany was forced into several coal-related obligations:^[2][1]

• The Saar coalfields were stripped from German control for 15 years, with their mines administered by France as direct compensation for the destruction of French coal mines during the war.^[2][1]
• Ongoing coal deliveries to France, Belgium, and Italy were mandated under Part VIII of the Treaty, requiring Germany to ship millions of tons of coal per month to former enemies.^[3][4]
• At the 1920 Spa Conference, Germany was forced to commit to delivering 2 million tons of coal per month for six months — a concession that immediately created domestic bottlenecks that damaged the iron, steel, and railway industries.^[3]

Germany Defaults on Coal Payments

Germany struggled to meet these obligations. The coal being shipped abroad was coal that German industry desperately needed, and Germany's domestic postwar economy was already damaged and debt-laden from the war itself. By late 1922, Germany defaulted on its scheduled reparations payments, including coal deliveries. The French believed Germany was choosing not to pay; Germans argued they genuinely could not afford to.^[5][6]

The Ruhr Occupation: The Trigger

In January 1923, France and Belgium sent troops into the Ruhr Valley — Germany's premier industrial heartland — to physically seize coal, steel, and industrial goods as payment in kind. The Ruhr produced the overwhelming majority of Germany's coal, iron, and steel. French and Belgian forces occupied:^[7][8][5]

• Coal mines
• Steel works
• Factories
• Railways^[5]

This was a devastating blow to the German economy, cutting off production in its industrial core at a stroke.^[7]

Passive Resistance: The Fatal Policy

The Weimar government responded with a policy of "passive resistance" — ordering workers to go on strike and refuse cooperation with the occupying forces. This was framed as a patriotic act. The problem was that the government promised to keep paying the wages of all these idle workers.^[6][5][7]

With the Ruhr shut down, Germany was simultaneously:

• Producing far fewer industrial goods and coal
• Earning almost no tax or export revenue from the region
• Obligated to pay hundreds of thousands of striking workers

As economist Jutta Hoffritz put it, "Germany cut back on their most important line of production just because they didn't want the French to have any of their coal and steel. Instead, they said, okay, then we won't produce anything at all."^[7]

The Money Printer: Hyperinflation Ignites

To fund the striking workers, the Weimar government had essentially one option left: print money. The Reichsbank, already stretched from wartime borrowing, began printing marks at an accelerating pace. By early 1923, over 130 printing facilities — beyond the State Printing Office itself — were producing banknotes, sometimes printing only one side to save time.^[6][5][7]

The basic economic mechanism is straightforward: when there is a flood of paper money chasing a drastically reduced supply of goods (because Ruhr production had collapsed), prices soar. The scarcity of coal specifically helped drive up the price of everything, since coal powered factories, heating, and railways.^[9][7]

The results were staggering:^[5]

• A loaf of bread cost 250 marks in January 1923
• By November 1923, the same loaf cost 200,000 million marks
• Workers were paid twice a day because their wages lost value between morning and lunchtime
• By autumn, it cost more to print a banknote than the note itself was worth

Resolution

The crisis only ended when Chancellor Gustav Stresemann called off passive resistance in September 1923, introduced the new Rentenmark currency in November 1923, and negotiated the Dawes Plan in 1924, which restructured reparations payments to manageable levels and brought in foreign capital. The hyperinflation collapsed remarkably quickly once the money printing stopped.^[6][7]

The Deeper Legacy

The political damage outlasted the economic recovery. The hyperinflation wiped out the savings of the German middle class — pensioners, creditors, and savers lost everything, while debtors and landowners profited. This destruction of the middle-class economic base created lasting resentment toward the Weimar Republic and was exploited by extremist movements, including a then-obscure Bavarian group called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which attempted its own coup (the Beer Hall Putsch) during the very peak of the crisis in November 1923.^[5][6]

In short: coal was not merely a background factor — it was the direct trigger. The loss of Saar coalfields, the mandatory coal-delivery reparations, the French seizure of the Ruhr mines, and the catastrophic decision to pay striking miners with printed money form an unbroken causal chain from Versailles (1919) to hyperinflation (1923).

⁂

• https://www.britannica.com/place/Weimar-Republic/The-Treaty-of-Versailles   
• https://web.pdx.edu/~tothm/Aftermath/tsld023.htm  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spa_Conference_of_1920  
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/1086832/treaty-versailles-coal-reparations-france-belgium-italy/ 
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/5       
• https://www.econlib.org/hyperinflation-in-germany-1921-1923/     
• https://www.dw.com/en/1923-how-weimar-combatted-hyperinflation/a-64184767       
• https://www.zachorfoundation.org/timeline/occupation-of-the-ruhr-leads-to-hyper-inflation-in-the-weimar-republic/ 
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-hyperinflation-heralded-the-fall-of-german-democracy-180982204/ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic 
• https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-weimar-republic/invasion-of-the-ruhr/ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr 
• https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/21599/3/21599.pdf 
• https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/military-history-and-science/france-occupies-ruhr 
• https://archive.org/details/what-germany-has-paid-under-the-treaty-of-versailles_202507 
• https://americangerman.institute/2023/12/hyperinflation-weimar/ 
• https://www.scribd.com/presentation/853584947/008-Hyperinflation 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Rhineland 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnh8MxuTGOQ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles 
• https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/partviii.asp 
• https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/weimar-germany-1918-1933/versailles-treaty-reparations-june-28-1919.pdf 
• https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c4933/c4933.pdf 
• https://www.nytimes.com/1921/01/08/archives/france-refuses-cut-in-spa-coal-terms-berlin-pleads-inability-to.html 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_reparations 
• https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/1pu4uq0/turns_out_that_when_you_break_shit_you_pay_for_it/ 
• https://www.nytimes.com/1930/12/14/archives/future-of-the-saar-a-puzzling-disturbing-problem-in-the-rich.html 

Slowing Jetstreams

It looks like jet stream patterns are not moving very quickly across the northern realms of Earth at this time, compared to the past?

Your observation is well-supported by a growing body of recent science. Here's a thorough breakdown of what's happening with the jet stream over the Northern Hemisphere and why it matters — especially for someone in central Alberta.

The Jet Stream Is Slowing and Stalling

The polar jet stream — the fast-moving river of high-altitude wind that circles the Northern Hemisphere at roughly the latitude of Canada's southern border in winter — is indeed behaving differently than it did in past decades. The core mechanism is well established: the jet stream is powered by the temperature contrast between the cold Arctic and the warmer mid-latitudes. As the Arctic warms roughly three to four times faster than the global average (a phenomenon called Arctic amplification), that contrast weakens, and the jet stream loses its driving energy.^[1][2][3]

The result is a slower, more sluggish wind current that tends to meander more wildly north and south rather than carrying weather systems briskly from west to east. Dr. Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center describes it clearly: as jet-stream winds slow down, its waves grow bigger and extend farther north and south, and those larger waves move eastward more slowly — locking weather patterns over regions for days or weeks instead of days.^[2][4][1]

The Arctic Is Feeding the Problem

The Arctic sea ice backdrop makes this worse right now. Arctic winter sea ice reached its lowest maximum extent in the 48-year satellite record in both 2025 and 2026, with 2026 reaching 14.29 million km² — statistically tied with 2025's record low. The 2026 maximum was roughly 1.36 million km² below the 1981–2010 average — an area twice the size of Texas. With less sea ice, the Arctic Ocean absorbs more solar radiation, further warming the polar region and further eroding the temperature gradient that drives jet stream speeds.^[5][6][7]

Total Arctic sea ice volume in early 2026 was the lowest on record, even lower than 2025, and about 15% below mid-March 2024 levels. NOAA reported that between October 2024 and September 2025, Arctic temperatures reached their highest levels in 125 years of recorded observations. This is the exact feedback loop that atmospheric scientists have been tracking — less ice → more Arctic warmth → weaker jet stream.^[8][9]

Stalled Waves: A Tripling of "Locked" Weather Events

The most alarming recent finding comes from a 2025 study published in PNAS by Michael Mann and colleagues, analyzing data from 1950 to 2024. It found that quasi-resonant amplification (QRA) events — episodes where large planetary waves in the jet stream become literally locked in place — have tripled in frequency since the 1950s. In the 1950s, Earth averaged about one such locked-wave summer event per year; now it averages about three, with some summers experiencing as many as six.^[10][11]

These are the events behind some of the most destructive weather in recent memory:

• The deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome (and the Lytton, BC record of 49.6°C)
• The 2010 Russian heatwave and simultaneous Pakistan flooding
• The 2003 European heatwave
• The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires in Alberta^[11]

The mechanism: when the jet stream gets stuck in a deeply wavy configuration, ridges of high pressure lock in place producing heat domes, while troughs lock in place producing prolonged storms and floods. Canada, and Central Alberta in particular, sits squarely in the zone where these blocking patterns produce dramatic swings.^[12][13][14]

An Active Scientific Debate

Not all scientists agree on the same interpretation. A 2020 University of Exeter study found no long-term increase in the actual waviness (amplitude) of the jet stream over the multi-decade record, arguing instead that observed links between Arctic warming and a wavier jet stream may reflect natural variability rather than a direct causal chain. Similarly, a June 2025 Dartmouth study using 125 years of ice-core-derived data found that pronounced wavy jet-stream phases have occurred naturally throughout the 20th century, before climate change was a significant factor, suggesting the current waviness isn't historically unprecedented.^[15][16]

Most recently, a June 2026 study from Harvard SEAS published in Science Advances challenged the QRA mechanism itself, finding that in model tests, conditions theorized to produce large trapped waves actually produced smaller waves — calling for more caution in invoking QRA as the sole explanation for increasing extreme events.^[17]

The scientific consensus, however, still points to a net slowdown in west-to-east progression of weather systems, greater persistence of blocking events, and more frequent stalling — even if the precise mechanisms are debated.^[12][18]

What This Means for Alberta

For Central Alberta, these dynamics translate directly into experienced weather patterns:

• Omega block patterns (a high-pressure ridge bookended by two troughs) repeatedly set up over Canada, including late May and June 2026, producing prolonged heat and temperature extremes on the Prairies^[19][20]
• When the jet stream dips south over the continent's centre, it delivers anomalous cold or storm systems well south of normal; when it arches north over the Prairies, heat domes and wildfire conditions build^[14]
• Weather systems that used to traverse the continent in 3–5 days now frequently stall, extending heat, drought, or rainfall events by weeks^[2]

The broader picture your observation captures is real and well-documented: the Northern Hemisphere's atmospheric "conveyor belt" has become less reliable, more erratic, and more prone to parking weather extremes over your region and others across the mid-latitudes.

⁂

• https://arctic-council.org/news/shifting-winds-how-a-wavier-polar-jet-stream-causes-extreme-weather-events/  
• https://theconversation.com/what-the-jet-stream-and-climate-change-had-to-do-with-the-hottest-summer-on-record-remember-all-those-heat-domes-238493   
• https://climate.sustainability-directory.com/learn/how-does-the-jet-stream-relate-to-arctic-amplification/ 
• https://news.yale.edu/2022/09/12/meandering-waves-connect-jet-streams-global-warming 
• https://www.carbonbrief.org/very-alarming-winter-sees-arctic-sea-ice-hit-record-low-for-second-year-running/ 
• https://science.nasa.gov/earth/arctic-winter-sea-ice-2026/ 
• https://iccinet.org/record-low-2026-arctic-sea-ice-maximum-why-its-essentially-a-tie-with-2025/ 
• https://iccinet.org/2026-arctic-sea-ice-maximum-among-lowest-on-record/ 
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/16/artic-record-heat-shrunken-sea-ice-report 
• https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/06/study-finds-planetary-waves-linked-to-wild-summer-weather-have-tripled-since-1950/ 
• https://michaelmann.net/atmospheric-warming-and-planetary-wave-amplification/  
• https://news.sustainability-directory.com/climate/stalled-jet-stream-events-tripled-since-1950-driving-extreme-summer-weather/  
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/how-kinks-in-the-jet-stream-can-push-our-weather-to-extremes-1.6304014 
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/wacky-summer-weather-blame-the-jet-stream-climatologist-says-1.2725818  
• https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200219152855.htm 
• https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/06/study-winter-jet-stream-was-erratic-climate-change 
• https://phys.org/news/2026-06-atmospheric-theory-falls-short-extreme.html 
• https://www.ehn.org/new-research-links-stalled-jet-stream-to-rising-summer-weather-extremes 
• https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/forecasts/this-blocking-pattern-may-deliver-canada-its-hottest-reading-of-2026 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH1wL5Kg6DU 
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4455715/ 
• https://www.meereisportal.de/en/news-overview/news-detail-view/mosaic-a-booster-shot-for-research-into-how-the-arctic-affects-our-weather 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-025-01262-y 
• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2200890119 
• https://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~williams/publications/3-s2.0-B9780128215753000153-main.pdf 
• https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/climate-change-the-jet-stream 
• https://wcd.copernicus.org/articles/6/595/2025/ 
• https://www.space.com/science/climate-change/2025s-extreme-weather-had-the-jet-streams-fingerprints-all-over-it-from-flash-floods-to-hurricanes 
• https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/4867/2022/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/utah.weather.analysis/posts/27735976242694178/ 
• https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/global-change-debates/Sources/Jet-stream-waviness-and-cold-winters/3-Barnes-2013.pdf 
• https://tellusjournal.org/articles/10.3402/tellusa.v68.32330 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR2PSGlFHaI 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1465-z 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03052-z 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream 
• https://www.carbonbrief.org/jet-stream-is-climate-change-causing-more-blocking-weather-events/ 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05256-8 
• https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat0721 
• https://phys.org/news/2026-05-arctic-winter-sea-ice-extent.html 
• https://climate.copernicus.eu/sea-ice-cover-january-2026 
• https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/2025-winter-maximum-sea-ice-extent-arctic-smallest-record 
• https://www.carbonbrief.org/arctic-sea-ice-winter-peak-in-2025-is-smallest-in-47-year-record/ 
• https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/global-jetstream 
• https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2025/sea-ice-2025/ 
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12552637/ 
• https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today/analyses/arctic-sea-ice-sets-record-low-maximum-2025 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgXlnu7TwNM 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_HxQeCpW0 
• https://michaelmann.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LiEtAl_PNAS2025.pdf 
• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1412797111 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFsZdZeQHSo 
• https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/unusual-july-temperatures-84150/ 
• https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/seasonal/atlantic-canada-new-brunswick-pei-nova-scotia-newfoundland-labrador-summer-forecast-2026?guid_iss=1 
• https://www.facebook.com/MeteorologistEddieSheerr/posts/a-pattern-called-an-omega-block-has-set-up-across-north-america-named-because-th/1542547500562376/ 
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-72787-0