Polar Vortex to Blast 200 Million People With Arctic Air
Alex Sosnowski
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist
November 7, 2014; 7:41 PM ET
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Arctic air associated with the polar vortex will lunge into the North Central United States early next week and will expand southward and eastward to affect about 200 million people as the week progresses.

Polar Vortex to Blast 200 Million People With Arctic Air
moreWarm Arctic, Cold Continents
Changes in the Arctic Are Hitting Closer to Home
Arctic atmospheric pressue.
The low Arctic pressure field is shown by purple colors in the figure for December 1968–1996. Strong Polar Vortex winds circle this pressure field, trapping cold air in the Arctic regions. In December 2009, this pattern broke down, Polar Vortex winds weakened (green colors) and cold Arctic air (which parallels the color contours) flowed southward.
Download here. (Credit: NOAA)
It’s a puzzle: How could warmth in the Arctic produce frigid conditions elsewhere?
NOAA scientists may have a clue.
Extremely cold winds have swept down through the Northern Hemisphere recently, reaching as far south as the state of Florida and causing record low temperatures in January. The unusually cold winter of 2009–2010 – which saw massive snowstorms dubbed “Snowpocalypse” and “Snowmageddon” — and the frigid start to 2011 in the eastern United States and Europe have scientists talking about what might be influencing the weather.
Dr. James Overland, a scientist at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle, has been studying the changing conditions in the Arctic for 30 years. He explains why the deterioration of the Polar Vortex could be leading to some of these extreme winter weather events.
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Monitoring & Understanding Our Changing Planet
