Boy, this seems counter-intuitive to me

…the rotation of the Earth may slow ever so slightly because of stronger winds, increasing the length of a day by a fraction of a millisecond (thousandth of a second).</>



Measuring the length of a day against a fraction of a millisecond? That would be impressive.

"The key is that the sum of the angular momentum (push) of the solid Earth plus atmosphere system must stay constant unless an outside force (torque) is applied," Salstein said. "So if the atmosphere speeds up (stronger westerly winds) then the solid Earth must slow down (length-of-day increases).<i/>

Don’t the winds get their energy from solar radiation? It's not a closed system. An increase in wind velocity is not the result of a decrease in the earth’s angular momentum and vise versa

Torque is an “applied” force. I think the atmosphere would make a pretty lousy “torque converter”.

Am I off on this?