Warming air over the North Pole could disrupt the Polar Vortex and send freezing weather our way later this month.
Don’t plant those tomatoes just yet! Sunshine is on tap for the weekend and lots of folks will be looking to get outdoors and start their preparations for Spring.
Overnight lows will be in the upper 30s this weekend with daytime highs in the 60s before a gradual warming trend begins next week. While we can expect some temperature swings with passing cool fronts, it’s the possibility of a disruption in the stratosphere over the North Pole that has many meteorologists concerned.
(Waugh et al., American Meteorological Society, 2017)
In layman’s terms, warming air over the North Pole could disrupt a whirlpool of frigid air in the upper atmosphere and send a polar wave in our direction.
At present, most major computer models are hinting that a sudden stratospheric warming event could occur as early as next week. The timing and extent of the disruption would dictate the effect, if any on our local weather.
Such warming events occur every winter or two, on average, but seldom do they play out the same way. Some result in only mild alterations to the prevailing weather pattern, while others bring about radical change.
For a more detailed discussion of this phenomena, check out the latest update from Space City Weather.
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