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Polar Vortex Collapse Leads To Snow Chaos
Europe and the eastern United States experience record-breaking snow levels and arctic temperatures
One week after the east coast of the United States was hit by one of the biggest blizzards in New York City history, Germany and central Europe are now covered in record-breaking snow masses.
Both events can be traced back to a collapsing polar vortex that enables cold arctic air to travel south, which causes very cold temperatures and major snowfall in affected areas.
What is the Polar Vortex?
The polar vortex is a low-pressure cyclone in the upper atmosphere above the polar regions of the Earth. It exists year-round but is weakest in the summer and strongest in the winter.
When it is getting fall, the north pole starts to cool very quickly because it is no longer getting any energy from the sun. Regions further south that still receive a few hours of sunshine every day, cool at a much slower rate. This causes a pressure drop near the pole and warmer air travels north. Due to the Coriolis effect, the air starts to rotate and feeds the polar vortex.
The polar vortex can range from stable to very unstable. When it is stable and strong, it’s a well defined single vortex of approximately 1000 km in diameter above the north pole. It often is a bit weaker, which causes it to split into two or more smaller but still well-defined vortices.
However, once every few years, the polar vortex will be especially weak, which causes the airflow to become very disorganized, and very cold air masses can escape further south. The arctic air leads to very sharp temperature drops and potentially heavy snowfall.
One of these polar vortex collapse events has started in late 2020 and we are seeing its results now with massive snowstorms in America and Europe.
Record-Breaking Snow Depth
After shoveling snow for 2 hours, I got curious whether it was in fact the most amount of snow we have…
