Everything You Wanted to Know About the ‘Polar Vortex’

“The Polar Vortex, a huge system of moving swirling air that normally contains the polar cold air, has shifted so it is not sitting right on the pole as it usually does,” writes Greg Laden, a bioanthroplogist at National Geographic’s Scienceblog.  “We are not seeing an expansion of cold, an ice age, or an anti-global warming phenomenon.  We are seeing the usual cold polar air taking an excursion.  So, this cold weather we are having does not disprove global warming.”

In fact, some scientists have theorized that the influx of extreme cold is actually fueled by effects of climate change.  Jennifer Francis, a research professor at Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, told ClimateProgress on Monday that it’s not the Arctic who is drunk.  It’s the jet stream.

Arctic warming, she said, is causing less drastic changes in temperatures between northern and southern climates, leading to weakened west-to-east winds, and ultimately, a wavier jet stream.  The stream’s recent “waviness” has been taking coldness down to the temperate United States and leaving Alaska and the Arctic relatively warm, Francis said. The same thing has been happening in other countries as well.  Winter storms have been pounding the U.K., she noted, while Scandinavia is having a very warm winter.

“This kind of pattern is going to be more likely, and has been more likely,” she said. “Extremes on both ends are a symptom.  Wild, unusual temperatures of both sides, both warmer and colder.”

Everything You Wanted to Know About the ‘Polar Vortex’