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| Two face-palms... One for 2013-14 & the 2nd for This season |
There are already plenty of legitimate online resources that you can read on the correct use of this interesting weather term. There are a plethora of them... a myriad some may say. All it takes is your time. And it's worth it! It is an interesting weather phenomena that is a direct result of Eath's atmosphere spinning along Earth's axis. Great stuff!
I will say... a lot of funny memes came out from it last year. I'm hoping for more. It's a guilty pleasure.
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| 2 Of My Favorite Polar Vortex Memes |
Alright, let's do some learning. The Polar Vortex is NOT an event. It's not a thing us TV folks came up with to get your attention. It's been studied by climate scientists for decades. It was actually 1st identified in the 1800's.
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| Courtesy: Mashable.com. Polar Vortex winds depiction. |
Strictly speaking, this polar vortex that will dip down into the northern U.S. is the whirl of winds that flows west-to-east and encircles the North Pole over the northern hemisphere (NH). Very simply, the STRONGER these winds run, the COLDER they get, and the more efficient they are at keeping the Arctic-frigid air around the poles.
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| Courtesy: scientificamerican. General upper air patter during a Weak Polar Vortex |
But... let's say these strong winds weaken... which they do from time-to-time for various reasons. When winds start to slow down, the vortex starts to waver. This in turn allows the Arctic air to break south and flow (advect) into lower latitudes while also churning warmer air from the south toward the North Pole.
Last winter was classified as a WEAK polar vortex season due to the fact these 'dips' occurred much more frequently. This allowed for a record-cold winter AND in turn resulted in record snowfall due to frequent arctic air outbreaks traveling over an 'open' Lake Michigan... resulting in more frequent lake effect snow events. The unofficial total for South Bend's snowfall last winter was 109.2 inches. Remember, it was unofficial due to missing airport data. Here's a complete look back from the National Weather Service on last winter for SBN & Fort Wayne: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/?n=2013_2014winter
More things to take out of this: the is not just 'A' polar vortex. There are two forever cyclonically rotating around Earth. They are flowing way high up in the atmosphere... almost completely free of friction to stop it. Our more familiar one over the North Pole and a second over the South Pole. There's also a polar vortex over the north pole of Saturn AND the south pole of Saturn... and Jupiter... and Neptune... and every planet. The only rule is that the plant needs an atmosphere. No wind... no polar vortex. Very simply again, it is just caused by the planet balancing out the heat budget from the equator to the poles of the planet... it's totally a normal thing. It's not weird.
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Courtesy NASA.gov: NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Obtains Best Views of Saturn Hexagon 'Polar Vortex'
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So there you have it. An overused term that brought memes, the 'Winter Misery Index' and countless misrepresentations. I guess, here we go again. The polar vortex will soon weaken this week... leading to Michiana temps only in the low to mid 30s for highs and lows in the 20s. This may even lead to some lake effect snow flurries and showers. Here's our extended forecast: http://www.fox28.com/weather
Stay warm & stay safe,
Joe
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