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The polar vortex works counterintuitively to what you might expect – the stronger it is, the less impactful it is. When the polar vortex is strong, cold air is less likely to plunge deep into ...
The culprit is the dreaded polar vortex, a climate phenomenon associated with bitter cold snaps that usually have the good sense to occur during late fall or winter. Hearing about the polar vortex ...
Often these stretched polar vortex events repeat themselves with time and in rare winters this can persist for the entire winter. This last happened in 2013-14 resulting in a very cold winter."
[4] [5] In the SH, SSW accompanied by a reversal of the vortex westerly (which is soon after followed by a vortex recovery) was observed once during the period 1979–2024; this was in September 2002. [6] Stratospheric warming in September 2019 was comparable to or even greater than that of 2002, but the wind reversal did not occur. [7] [8] [9]
The interface between the cold dry air mass of the pole and the warm moist air mass farther south defines the location of the polar front. The polar front is centered roughly at 60° latitude. A polar vortex strengthens in the winter and weakens in the summer because of its dependence on the temperature difference between the equator and the poles.
The polar vortex drives fluctuations in winter temperatures in the middle latitudes. Climatologist Judah Cohen and others proposed climate change in the Arctic was causing the vortex to waver, bringing cold air south to the Midwestern United States , which was then replaced by warm tropical air.
The polar vortex is not synonymous with a cold snap. In fact, the stratosphere is 10 to 30 miles above the earth’s surface and above the polar jet stream and other systems that create most ...
The snow and blizzards expected to hit Britain due to a phenomenon called Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) will arrive in a few weeks, the Met Office has said, as temperatures remain mild this ...