What is the polar vortex and is global warming to blame?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/polar-vortex-what-is-the-2019-polar-vortex-weather-event-and-is-global-warming-to-blame/
Source: By Jeff Berardelli, CBS News.
Excerpt: Forecasters say millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes will see record-shattering wind chills from 40 to 65 degrees below zero this week — cold so extreme it could cause frostbite on exposed skin in five minutes or less. Some 100 million people will experience temperatures near or below zero. ...the polar vortex [is] a whirling mass of cold air circulating in the mid- to upper-levels of the atmosphere, present every winter. It usually stays closer to the poles but sometimes breaks apart, sending chunks of Arctic air southward into the U.S. during winter. ...Regional cold air outbreaks may be getting an "assist" from global warming. While it may not seem to make sense at first glance, scientifically it's consistent with the extremes expected from climate change. ...Evidence for this was presented in a research paper [https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0259.1] published in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society....
See also: National Geographic video "What is the Polar Vortex? [2014; https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/00000145-704c-d15e-abdf-784d34150000] as well as "Polar Vortex: How the Jet Stream and Climate Change Bring on Cold Snaps" by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News. [2/2/2018; https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02022018/cold-weather-polar-vortex-jet-stream-explained-global-warming-arctic-ice-climate-change]
U.S. Midwest Freezes, Australia Burns: This Is the Age of Weather Extremes. By Somini Sengupta, The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/climate/global-warming-extreme-weather.html] Excerpt: In Chicago, officials warned about the risk of almost instant frostbite on what could be the city’s coldest day ever. Warming centers opened around the Midwest. And schools and universities closed throughout the region as rare polar winds streamed down from the Arctic. At the same time, on the other side of the planet, wildfires raged in Australia’s record-breaking heat. Soaring air-conditioner use overloaded electrical grids and caused widespread power failures. The authorities slowed and canceled trams to save power. Labor leaders called for laws that would require businesses to close when temperatures reached hazardous levels: nearly 116 degrees Fahrenheit, or 47 Celsius, as was the case last week in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. ...“When something happens — whether it’s a cold snap, a wildfire, a hurricane, any of those things — we need to think beyond what we have seen in the past and assume there’s a high probability that it will be worse than anything we’ve ever seen,” said Crystal A. Kolden, an associate professor at the University of Idaho, who specializes in wildfires and who is currently working in Tasmania during one of the state’s worst fire seasons. Consider these recent examples: Heat records were toppled from Norway to Algeria last year. In parts of Australia, a drought has gone on so long that a child in kindergarten will hardly have seen rain in her lifetime. And California saw its most ruinous wildfires ever in 2018, triggering a bankruptcy filing this week by the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. ...As for the extremely low temperatures this week in parts of the United States, they stand in sharp contrast to the trend toward warmer winters. They may also be a result of warming, strangely enough. Emerging research suggests that a warming Arctic is causing changes in the jet stream and pushing polar air down to latitudes that are unaccustomed to them and often unprepared. Hence this week’s atypical chill over large swaths of the Northeast and Midwest....
Source: By Jeff Berardelli, CBS News.
Excerpt: Forecasters say millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes will see record-shattering wind chills from 40 to 65 degrees below zero this week — cold so extreme it could cause frostbite on exposed skin in five minutes or less. Some 100 million people will experience temperatures near or below zero. ...the polar vortex [is] a whirling mass of cold air circulating in the mid- to upper-levels of the atmosphere, present every winter. It usually stays closer to the poles but sometimes breaks apart, sending chunks of Arctic air southward into the U.S. during winter. ...Regional cold air outbreaks may be getting an "assist" from global warming. While it may not seem to make sense at first glance, scientifically it's consistent with the extremes expected from climate change. ...Evidence for this was presented in a research paper [https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0259.1] published in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society....
See also: National Geographic video "What is the Polar Vortex? [2014; https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/00000145-704c-d15e-abdf-784d34150000] as well as "Polar Vortex: How the Jet Stream and Climate Change Bring on Cold Snaps" by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News. [2/2/2018; https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02022018/cold-weather-polar-vortex-jet-stream-explained-global-warming-arctic-ice-climate-change]
U.S. Midwest Freezes, Australia Burns: This Is the Age of Weather Extremes. By Somini Sengupta, The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/climate/global-warming-extreme-weather.html] Excerpt: In Chicago, officials warned about the risk of almost instant frostbite on what could be the city’s coldest day ever. Warming centers opened around the Midwest. And schools and universities closed throughout the region as rare polar winds streamed down from the Arctic. At the same time, on the other side of the planet, wildfires raged in Australia’s record-breaking heat. Soaring air-conditioner use overloaded electrical grids and caused widespread power failures. The authorities slowed and canceled trams to save power. Labor leaders called for laws that would require businesses to close when temperatures reached hazardous levels: nearly 116 degrees Fahrenheit, or 47 Celsius, as was the case last week in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. ...“When something happens — whether it’s a cold snap, a wildfire, a hurricane, any of those things — we need to think beyond what we have seen in the past and assume there’s a high probability that it will be worse than anything we’ve ever seen,” said Crystal A. Kolden, an associate professor at the University of Idaho, who specializes in wildfires and who is currently working in Tasmania during one of the state’s worst fire seasons. Consider these recent examples: Heat records were toppled from Norway to Algeria last year. In parts of Australia, a drought has gone on so long that a child in kindergarten will hardly have seen rain in her lifetime. And California saw its most ruinous wildfires ever in 2018, triggering a bankruptcy filing this week by the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. ...As for the extremely low temperatures this week in parts of the United States, they stand in sharp contrast to the trend toward warmer winters. They may also be a result of warming, strangely enough. Emerging research suggests that a warming Arctic is causing changes in the jet stream and pushing polar air down to latitudes that are unaccustomed to them and often unprepared. Hence this week’s atypical chill over large swaths of the Northeast and Midwest....