Posted on 04/08/2024 5:57:05 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
A major current of circulating air called the Arctic polar vortex has completely reversed course and is now spinning 'backwards'. With winds now blowing easterly, scientists are trying to predict what effect this might have on weather systems in the coming months.
Before you start envisioning the sudden collapse of our planet's weather systems, these reversals aren't all that unusual. While the strength of the reversed winds has attracted attention, this is not the first reversal this year.
During the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, the vortex's circulating winds slow down and start spinning easterly (clockwise around the Arctic) too.
However, reversals from westerly to easterly during the winter months can have significant impacts, and few are as dramatic as the one we've seen in March 2024. It's in the top six strongest reversals since 1979, climate scientist Amy Butler from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Spaceweather.com.
As described by NOAA climate scientist Rebecca Lindsey, this winter's stratospheric events have been anything but typical, providing "plenty of drama" to keep researchers busy until air returns to a westerly circulation in the following weeks.
The polar vortex sits in the stratosphere, which starts at around 6–20 kilometers (4–12 miles) above the planet's surface and reaches roughly 50 kilometers (around 31 miles) above. While most of the weather we experience is a feature of the troposphere below it, extreme stratospheric winds of up to 250 km/hr keep a pocket of cold air trapped over the North Pole.
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(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
A vortex is circular. Do these brainiacs have their panties in a wad because of the tiny, tiny section over Scotland that is flowing northeasterly?
Newsflash: It’s been doing that for the decades I was flying transatlantic flights. It was nearly always as rough as a cob in that area.
EC
You were flying in the jet stream, right, not the polar vortex.
I just don’t believe anything I see that’s in a digital format anymore.
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