What Is a Polar Vortex?

Column for week of January 13, 2014             

     Anyone following the weather news during the early
January cold wave was nearly beaten to death by the term "polar
vortex."  Probably most never heard the term before.  The polar
vortex got the blame for what was commonly called deadly cold
weather.

     Most people probably had little memory of the last
"deadly" cold wave.  "Polar vortex" instantly became a
frightening new kind of deadly weather.   I wasn't familiar with
the term either.  I did remember cold waves past and saw
nothing unusual about the latest edition.

     I did a few minutes of research to learn about the scary
new beast.   The polar vortexes are high altitude winds that
circle the poles.  Both poles have one.  In the northern
hemisphere we are mainly affected by the one circling the north
pole.

     Cold polar air stays on the pole side of the polar vortex. 
Occasionally the polar winds weaken and the vortex bulges to
the south.  Cold polar air fills the bulge.   That bulge can extend
as far south as Florida.

     I suspect that most are familiar with the cold waves that
occur when the jet stream dips to the far south.   That dipping of
the jet stream is what periodically freezes the oranges in Florida. 
When I was in Florida in 1990, the Everglades were dotted with
dead trees killed by a severe freeze earlier in the year.

     That cold wave was the product of the same phenomenon
that brought the recent cold wave.  It was just as much a "polar
ortex" as was this year's cold wave.  Few, if any, people called
it a polar vortex.

     There was nothing new about the recent cold wave. 
Someone merely conjured up a new name for it.  The same
weather phenomenon took place last year.  What, you don't
remember it?  That probably means you weren't in Europe last
winter.  Last winter the Europeans and some North Africans got
what we got this January.  I don't know what they called their
cold wave.

     Bulges in the polar vortex aren't uncommon.  They may
occur three or so times a year somewhere across North America,
Europe and Asia.

     Why do the good, or not so good, old-fashioned cold
waves suddenly have a new, scary name?  A meteorologist was
asked if global warming could have caused the polar vortex.  He
allowed as how it might have.  He was a bit short on the
explanation of how.

     Those who fanatically claim humans are heating up the
world with carbon dioxide are desperate after more than a
decade without any warming.  Their reputations and research
grants are in jeopardy.  Did they trot out the scary "polar vortex"
in a desperate attempt to save their sinking ship?   Grasping for
such a small straw would truly be an act of desperation.  Perhaps
they are that desperate.

     Why did the media grab the term and run with it?  
Occam's Razor says that the simplest explanation is usually the
best.  What simpler explanation is there than that the news
media use scary stories and headlines to gain an audience?

     The cold wave set some record daily low temperatures. 
According to one weather site the old record low for Jackson on
January 6 was -4°.  That record plunged down to -16°.  That
sounds impressive until noticing that the old record for the next
day was -12°, and the record low for January is -20°.

     This is typical of record lows and highs.  They vary
substantially from day to day.   Records are easy to set, if the
weather picks the right day to get hot or cold.  Such records
don't mean there has been any general change in weather or
climate.

     Perhaps the main thing to note from all of this is that
"polar vortex" is merely a different name for the extreme cold
waves that have been flowing over the Northern Hemisphere
since long before any of us were here to "enjoy" them.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
                                 * * * * *
                                  * * * *
                                   * * *
                                    * *
                                     *
Copyright 2014
Albert D. McCallum