If you ’ve turned on the news or stepped alfresco lately , you ’re familiar with therecord - break coldthat is blanketing a lot of North America . According toThe Washington Post , a mass of bone - cool air over Canada — a diametrical vortex — split into three parts at the beginning of 2019 , and one is making its direction to the easterly U.S. Polar vortexes canpush frigid airstraight from the arctic tundra into more temperate region . But just what is this weather phenomenon ?
How does a polar vortex form?
Polar vortexes are basically north-polar hurricanes or cyclone . NASAdefines them as“a whirling and unrelenting large domain of low press , found typically over both North and South pole . ” A winter phenomenon , whirlpool develop as the sun sets over the pole and temperatures chill , and occur in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere ( roughly , betweensix and 31 milesabove the Earth ’s surface ) .
Where will a polar vortex hit?
In the Northern Hemisphere , the vortexes move in a counterclockwise direction . Typically , they dip down over Canada , butaccording to NBC News , glacial vortexes can move into the conterminous U.S. due to warm conditions over Greenland or Alaska — which force denser cold air south — or other weather radiation pattern .
Polar vortexes are n’t rare — in fact , polar winds do sometimes dip down into the easterly U.S.—but sometimes the out-and-out size of the area affect is much corking than normal .
How cold is a polar vortex?
So cold thatfrozen sharkshave been known to wash up on Cape Cod beaches . So cold that brute keeper at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta , Canada once decided to bring its mathematical group of business leader penguinsindoorsfor heat ( the species experience onislands northward of Antarcticaand the hoot are n’t used to extreme low temperature . ) Even function ofAlabamaand other region in the Deep South have attend undivided - digit temperatures and wind chills below zero .
But gratefully , this type of arctic freeze does n’t stick around forever : Temperatures will step by step warm up .
