Polar Vortex: More Winter Storms ahead for the Northeast

I've written about the polar vortex before.  It's balmy here in the Pacific Northwest, the warmest winter I can recall, but this year is another year for cold winter storms in the Northeast.  They've been hit hard this year so far, but it's not going to stop.

Brace for the Polar Vortex: It May Be Visiting More Often

Find your long johns, break out the thick socks and raid the supermarket. After a month of relatively mild winter weather, the Midwest and the East Coast are bracing for what is becoming a seasonal rite of passage: the polar vortex.

It looks interestingly like the Arctic Circle weather just dumped itself over the East Coast of the U.S.

It’s this escaping polar air that is dropping temperatures in the Midwest and the East — there’s a lag time between the atmospheric event and when we experience the effects. The broken vortex is also sending icy temperatures to much of Europe in what some call the “Beast From the East.”

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While climate change is warming the earth, not all parts of the earth are warming at the same rate; the Arctic is warming at a rate twice as fast as the world average. That warming has led to historically low levels of sea ice in the region. The melting sea ice, particularly in an area near the Barents and Kara Seas off Siberia, may be linked to the changes in the polar vortex.

The unfortunate side effect of this winter cold weather in the Northeast is that it encourages the global warming deniers.  They need to understand that there will be many unforeseen consequences from global warming.