What's the Polar Vortex?
This video is a part of Animated Atmosphere, a suite of short videos produced by the UCAR Center for Science Education with FableVision Studios.
Learn about the polar vortex and the polar jet stream and how we can get particularly chilly winter weather in the mid-latitudes when the air circulating around the North Pole wobbles to the south.
Transcript
The polar vortex is an area of swirling, cold air located over the Arctic.
Although the polar vortex is around all year long,
we pay attention when it comes further south, knocking on our door.
Making winter even colder. But how does it get here?
Warming temperatures in the Arctic caused the polar jet stream to wander off course,
causing the polar vortex to wobble and slip off the Arctic
and over southern Canada and the United States, Europe and Asia.
The increase of polar vortex events in these places
is actually related to rising global temperatures and melting Arctic sea ice.
Weird, right?