News headlines have provided clues that the polar vortex has arrived like an ice tornado wreaking havoc anywhere it strikes.
At the beginning of this month, a major snowstorm struck the northeast United States, with some sites having well more than two feet of snow.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Spain experienced a momentous and fatal snowstorm and hazardously low temperatures. In connection to this, Northern Siberia is not new to cold, although some Siberian cities reported temperatures lower than negative 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of last month.
Essentially, atmospheric scientists are cringing when the term "polar vortex" is used to loosely cite blasts of cold atmosphere or weather.
An EcoWatch report said the actual polar vortex could not put snow in one's backyard, although changes in the polar vortex can "load the dice for wintry weather," and in 2021, "the dice rolled Yahtzee."
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The Winter Winds
The polar vortex is a gigantic, three-dimensional ring of winds surrounding the North and South Poles during each winter of the hemisphere.
Such winds are situated roughly 10 to 30 miles on top of Earth's surface, in the atmosphere's layer known as the stratosphere.
They are blowing from west to east with retained speeds simply going beyond 100 mph. In the winter polar night's darkness, temperatures within the polar vortex can simply get below negative 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Luckily for everyone, the so-called 'stratospheric' polar vortex will not appear outside any regular front door.
Essentially, the polar vortex does affect winter weather; although it is more akin to a domino that, when knocked over, it can initiate a chain of events that lead later on in wild weather.
The polar vortex's strength can differ extensively during winter. Such variations can result in shifts in the jet stream's strength and position, the rapidly flowing river of air in the troposphere under the polar vortex.
The Domino Effect
Since Earth's atmosphere is one gigantic shell of air moving like a fluid, the polar vortex is interlinked with the weather, moving around the Earth's lower altitudes.
Standard changes in the jet stream and the weather can disrupt the vortex's structure in the stratosphere. Like an elastic band, the vortex typically bounces back to its standard size and shape, retaining its strong winds, not to mention low temperatures.
However, sometimes, these variations in weather and jet stream can knock off balance the polar vortex, leading to substantial trembles in its shapes, sites, temperatures, and winds.'
Warmer Weather, Rather than Cold
During some wonder seasons, weather systems hardly impact the polar vortex at all, enabling the vortex to grow colder with more rapid winds.
This can have both opposite impacts on the jet stream, leading it to stay cold Arctic air from the "polar regions locked up north."
This occurred during the Northern Hemisphere winter last year when the polar vortex was unusually strong, and many regions suffered an extremely warm and mild winter.
Experts say that calling any "blast of cold air a polar vortex is wrong." The polar vortex's behavior does not only signify cold weather. It can suggest much warmer weather, too.
More often than not, the polar vortex has a slight impact on winter weather as it is flowing like normal, miles on top of the surface.
However, predicting and monitoring large disturbances to the polar vortex enables experts to anticipate a chain of occurrences that may leave frigid weather and feet of snow at any doorstep.
Check out more news and information on Polar Vortex on Science Times.
