The National Weather Service had earlier said the combination of two weather systems from the polar and sub-tropical jet streams would produce a "potentially historic" storm.

BBC: Snowstorm batters north-east US and Atlantic Canada

The jet stream consists of strong winds about 10 miles above the Earth that control storm paths and mark boundaries between cooler and warmer air.

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Glenn Orton, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who has led the analysis of the merged storm, admits that Jupiter's weather is still only dimly understood.

ECONOMIST: Comparative meteorology

This is the so-called jet stream, the fast river of air that helps drive our weather, which interacts with the storm's updrafts to create a spinning column of air.

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The Saudis said they decided to storm the plane after reaching "a dead end" in negotiations during the 18 hours the Vnukova Airlines Tupolev 154 jet was parked on the tarmac at Medina.

BBC: News Online