Polar Vortex Update - Jan 12

[dan_s]

As Polar Vortex Stirs, Deep Freeze Threatens U.S. and Europe
By Brian K Sullivan at Bloomberg
January 10, 2021, 6:00 AM CST Updated on January 11, 2021
> Polar vortex set to unleash Arctic air after a two-year hiatus
> Frigid temperatures already sending gas prices to record highs

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... and-europe

A "Polar Vortex" is actually caused by increasing temperature in the atmosphere far above the North Pole. As the upper atmosphere expands it pushes down on the super cold air below, causing it to rush south to where most humans live in the Northern Hemisphere. Technically, the polar vortex refers to a band of winds that encircle the Arctic and keep the cold locked far to the North. But with that temperature spike, known as sudden stratospheric warming, the band can buckle, allowing frigid air to head south. Gas traders used to call it the “polar pig.”
High in the atmosphere above the North Pole, a spike in temperatures may soon send bone-rattling chills spilling down through the Northern Hemisphere.

The icy blasts threatening to sweep across North America, Europe and Asia starting in late January are from the same weather pattern that triggered the 2014 cold snap known as the polar vortex, which plunged temperatures in Chicago to minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 27 Celsius).

It’s common during winter for frigid air to roar down from the Arctic. But the cold mostly stayed bottled up around the North Pole in the season of 2019-2020. Now, after a nearly two-year hiatus, winter is threatening to return at last.