Podcast - Feb 18 > Direct Link

[dan_s]

Here is the link to the podcast: https://youtu.be/xYtvtj8PRRk

Keep an eye out for this:

A polar vortex disruption is underway. What it means is up in the air.
Scientists still can’t yet say how a massive warming in the stratosphere above the North Pole will affect our weather
By Matthew Cappucci for The Washington Post
February 17, 2023 at 2:38 p.m. EST

Temperatures at the high altitudes above the North Pole are soaring, jumping up to 50 degrees in barely a week. The so-called “sudden stratospheric warming” is disturbing the polar vortex, which in turn could have major implications for weather patterns across the northern hemisphere in March.

But scientists, despite successfully predicting this warming event two weeks ago, say it’s too soon to know what it will mean for the weather in anyone’s backyard. These events, which occur in two out of every three winters on average, don’t play out in a prescribed way.

There has been some speculation that the current event could topple the first domino in a chain reaction that would reshuffle weather patterns. For instance, the eastern U.S. has seen an exceptionally mild January and February and some previous sudden stratospheric warming and polar vortex disruptions have precipitated extreme cold snaps and severe winter storms.

Andrea Lang, a researcher at the University of Albany, wrote in an email that polar vortex disruptions have been known to result in “a 50% increase in cold air outbreaks in the northern hemisphere and a shift in the storm tracks.”

The last time a sudden stratospheric warming event occurred was Jan. 5, 2021. Just over a month later, the most dramatic cold air outbreak since 1989 plunged the central U.S. into a historic deep freeze, causing the collapse of Texas’s power grid, claiming at least 330 lives and incurring more than $27 billion in damages.

But multiple experts interviewed about the ongoing event say it’s too soon to know whether this one will trigger extreme weather or meaningfully change prevailing weather regimes over the northern hemisphere.