The Arctic region is warming much faster than the rest of the planet. The rapid loss of ice affects the polar jet stream, which influences weather patterns across the northern hemisphere.
The polar vortex influences the jet stream, which can bring cold winter weather to the U.S. and Europe.
AP Photo/Bill Sikes
Zachary Lawrence, University of Colorado Boulder and Amy Butler, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The media often call unusually cold, snowy storms a ‘polar vortex.’ The real polar vortex isn’t coming down to visit the lower 48, but changes to the polar vortex can influence winter weather.
The northern hemisphere jet stream crossing Cape Breton Island in the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.
NASA/Wikimedia Commons
The jet stream is being distorted on both sides by fast-warming tropical and Arctic air. Should the tropics win out, weather patterns could change profoundly.
Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront froze during the 2019 polar vortex.
AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato
Layering on winter gear is annoying. But with temperatures reaching minus 50 in some parts of the country, it is essential to protect your skin from frostbite, which can happen in minutes.
Water vapor rising from the surface of Lake Michigan condenses into droplets on a sub-zero day, Jan. 6, 2014.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
An atmospheric scientist explains why water can do some strange-looking things at very cold temperatures, and what’s different about snowfalls on Mars.
Bundled up against the cold in downtown Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019.
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Life-threatening cold temperatures in the central US are caused by changes in wind circulation in the Arctic that bring cold air south. Climate change could make these events more frequent.
Many people around the world, in certain locations, have asked, “where is global warming?” This is because they have experienced very cold wintry conditions and weird weather that they do not associate…