Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It's Just Winter (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6D1UOXURMfe9k7fgctdgQwWTqjZ-LuLQi2Ihxn4mPEM7f3XraiBYwq9_0-FJcHVEwNAyILkDEsMV75PSYnUVEvhhTjaGTm4GCNYH4woBzrTm1g3gBJYnKJbmnBPp3mDG2Xpu5-Zj9IM/s1600/ab40f9f5-0e9a-476f-ad52-9a2edd130a6d_RTX17OOA+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6D1UOXURMfe9k7fgctdgQwWTqjZ-LuLQi2Ihxn4mPEM7f3XraiBYwq9_0-FJcHVEwNAyILkDEsMV75PSYnUVEvhhTjaGTm4GCNYH4woBzrTm1g3gBJYnKJbmnBPp3mDG2Xpu5-Zj9IM/s1600/ab40f9f5-0e9a-476f-ad52-9a2edd130a6d_RTX17OOA+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24138" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Face it — "polar vortex" is fun to say. It sounds like something that could have killed a red-shirted crewmember on the original "Star Trek" television series. Maybe that's why a weather feature that has been known by this name for decades is getting 15 minutes of fame this month.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's always there and always will be there," said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md. "There's always a polar vortex."For better or worse, <a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/42339-polar-vortex-us-temperatures.html" data-rapid_p="8" href="http://www.livescience.com/42339-polar-vortex-us-temperatures.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">polar vortex</a> now seems to be shorthand for any bitterly cold winter air blasting into the United States from the Arctic. But this atmospheric weather pattern is really just winter as usual.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24157" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The polar vortex is a <a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/topics/weather/" data-rapid_p="9" href="http://www.livescience.com/topics/weather/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">winter weather</a> pattern that circles the Arctic, spinning west to east, trapping cold air in the high latitudes. Researchers named the polar vortex in the 1950s (there is a similar vortex over Antarctica, just FYI).</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24166" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Think of it as stirring a bowl of liquid — the cold air is caught in the "well" in the middle. The vortex never actually leaves the Arctic. But if the spinning weakens, cold air can escape the trap and zoom south, as it did the week of Jan. 5. Currently, the polar vortex low is centered over Greenland. [<a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/42723-polar-vortex-chilling-effects-spied-by-heat-seeking-satellite-cam-time-lapse-animation.html" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.livescience.com/42723-polar-vortex-chilling-effects-spied-by-heat-seeking-satellite-cam-time-lapse-animation.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Video: Watch the Polar Vortex Sweep Across the U.S.</a>]</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><br /></div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp portrait onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="11" data-uuid="2357fb97-a92a-3bd2-b5fd-2d57cd7b1663" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/polar-vortex-part-ii-nah-39-just-winter-photo-185710864.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It&#39;s Just Winter"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 343px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It&#39;s Just Winter" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="343" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/2Ua.i3nffpbnRrVFCmuKKQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTM0MztxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/LiveScience.com/winter-storm.jpg1390329970" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Today's winter storm (Jan. 21) as seen from space.</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Weather experts track the polar vortex to help forecast coming cold air masses — it is one of the many puzzle pieces that help predict winter storms.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The same polar vortex pattern that struck in early January is happening again this week; only the cold air blanketing the East Coast isn't quite so frigid. But the cold wave will last as long as a week, Oravec said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"You need a favorable pattern for cold, and the patterns are very similar, it's just the magnitude that's different," Oravec told LiveScience. "It's still pretty impressive cold air, but this one is going to be a little more prolonged."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A shot of cold air will come in across the Plains today (Jan. 21), followed by another Arctic surge on the weekend, Oravec said. Another series of cold air blasts is expected early next week, extending the <a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/42388-polar-vortex-freeze-to-death.html" data-rapid_p="12" href="http://www.livescience.com/42388-polar-vortex-freeze-to-death.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">freeze</a>.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"The temperatures are not quite as cold [as in early January, but the pattern is more persistent in this event," Oravec said.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="13" data-uuid="0a0a3c28-9d6c-34b6-af6b-8fc0867b7ef4" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/polar-vortex-part-ii-nah-39-just-winter-photo-185710694.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It&#39;s Just Winter"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 300px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It&#39;s Just Winter" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="300" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/8rSfv3nOEx8ufafzKwvs7w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/LiveScience.com/polar-vortex.jpg1390330218" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">The polar vortex low was centered over Greenland on Jan. 20, 2014.</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While Americans living east of the Rockies will shiver this week, the weather will be dry and warm in the West and Alaska. That's because atmospheric flow patterns that are freezing the central and eastern United States and Canada are also contributing to the drought and warm temperatures in the West, Oravec said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24203" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"The exact placement of Arctic air over parts of North America is often determined by the same flow patterns that are keeping the West Coast warm and dry," Oravec said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24218" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For example, when the polar vortex weakens, the <a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/27825-jet-stream.html" data-rapid_p="14" href="http://www.livescience.com/27825-jet-stream.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">jet stream</a>may shift south of its usual position and develop kinks and troughs that steer cold air over the East Coast, while keeping the West Coast warm.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24228" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em>Email </em><em><a data-mce-href="mailto:boskin@techmedianetwork.com" data-rapid_p="15" href="mailto:boskin@techmedianetwork.com" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Becky Oskin</a> </em><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_24237">or follow her </em><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/beckyoskin" data-rapid_p="16" href="https://twitter.com/beckyoskin" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><em>@beckyoskin</em></a><em>. Follow us </em><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience" data-rapid_p="17" href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><em><a data-mce-href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience" data-rapid_p="18" href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Facebook</a> </em><em>& </em><a data-mce-href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts" data-rapid_p="19" href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on </em><em><a data-mce-href="http://www.livescience.com/42729-polar-vortex-and-winter-weather.html" data-rapid_p="20" href="http://www.livescience.com/42729-polar-vortex-and-winter-weather.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">LiveScience</a></em><em>.</em></div></div>

Polar Vortex, Part II? Nah, It's Just Winter (BLOG)

Face it — "polar vortex" is fun to say. It sounds like something that could have killed a red-shirted crewmember on the original ...

Read more »