How does climate change affect polar vortex?

The change is warming higher latitudes and reducing the temperature difference between the warmer mid-latitude and polar regions. This weakens and destabilizes the polar jet stream, causing it to dip into lower latitudes, bringing polar air farther south.

Is there a polar vortex in Antarctica?

The polar vortex over Antarctica and its adjacent seas is isolated from air outside the region by the polar-front jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere, which circulates between approximately 50° and 65° S over the Southern Ocean.

What causes the polar vortex to weaken?

Lanzhou researchers found that a loss of sea ice in the Arctic regions due to rising temperatures in the Barents-Kara seas, along with an increase in snow cover over Europe and Asia, has caused the polar vortex to weaken. The pocket of cold air has in turn shifted toward Eurasia.

What causes a polar vortex to form?

And what causes it? The polar vortex is an area of low pressure—a wide expanse of swirling cold air—that is parked in polar regions. During winter, the polar vortex at the North Pole expands, sending cold air southward.

How cold is a polar vortex?

They blow from west to east with sustained speeds easily exceeding 100 mph (160 kph). In the darkness of the winter polar night, temperatures within the polar vortex can easily get lower than minus 110 F (minus 79 C). Fortunately for everyone, the stratospheric polar vortex itself won’t appear outside your front door.

What is an Arctic vortex?

The Arctic polar vortex is a band of strong westerly winds that forms in the stratosphere between about 10 and 30 miles above the North Pole every winter. The winds enclose a large pool of extremely cold air. (There is an even stronger polar vortex in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere in its winter.)

What is happening with the polar vortex?

A new stratospheric Polar Vortex has now emerged over the North Pole and will continue to strengthen well into the Winter of 2021/2022. It will interact with a strong easterly wind anomaly high over the tropics.

Will the polar vortex return in 2021?

The Polar Vortex has just returned for the cold season 2021/2022, yet it is already facing its first stratospheric warming event. An unusually early warming event is starting over the Polar regions, with more warming forecast to follow into the late month.

Will there be another polar vortex in 2022?

Discussion: Inevitable is the likelihood of the feared polar vortex pattern in January 2022. Why? Simply stated, there is precedent for persistent high-amplitude high-pressure ridge areas forming over large regions of much warmer than normal SSTA during the past 10 years in the winter season.

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