Photo: NASA
Disturbances to the upper-atmosphere phenomena (the polar vortex) can send icy blasts from the Arctic into the middle latitudes, chilling Europe, Asia, parts of North America, and me in Eastern Massachusetts. The disturbance and its effects have hammered us for an unusually long time in 2021. The wild weather originates in the Arctic which is warming faster than anywhere else. It appears that rising temperatures are weakening the jet stream, which encircles the pole and generally retains that frigid air. When a sudden stratospheric warming happens, it delivers a punch to the polar vortex that can cause the Arctic air to shift, making its way down through the atmosphere to people like me who wouldn’t dare step outside.
www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/climate/polar-vortex-weather-climate-change.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage