SS: A current post on this sub on the ongoing Japanese massive snowfall may be related to this phenomenon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/kqvtdr/a_pair_of_recordbreaking_weather_systems_bring/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Polar vortex is splitting because of a sudden stratospheric warming event - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/01/05/polar-vortex-split-cold-snow/
Excerpts
Stratospheric warming events are a known, but not guaranteed, trigger for knocking the polar vortex off balance, like flicking a spinning top, forcing it to spin more slowly and erratically. They are triggered by an upward flow of energy in the form of “large-scale atmospheric waves” from the lower atmosphere, according to Amy Butler, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory.
Normally, winds in the stratosphere circulate from west to east around the North Pole, around an area of low pressure. But the rapid warming — on the order of 30 degrees Celsius in the past two weeks — taking place in the frigid, darkened Arctic is causing that low-pressure area to break down and the winds to slacken, Butler says. The winds are even poised to reverse, which can increase the chances of stratospheric weather affecting conditions in the lower atmosphere.
Sudden stratospheric warming events happen about six times per decade on average, but this event is unusually intense.
Cohen says a polar vortex split tends to favor colder than average conditions in Europe, rather than the United States, but that does not mean there won’t be major snowstorms in the United States.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 94%. (I'm a bot)
> The "Main actor" in these powerful events, is of course the Polar Vortex.
> As a general reference, we usually look at the polar vortex in the stratosphere at the 10mb/hPa level.
> It usually means a collapse of the polar vortex, which can have a cascading effect downward towards the surface, impacting the winter weather development.
> The graphic below from Simon Lee shows the power status of the polar vortex at the lowest levels of the stratosphere.
> Around the post-Christmas period, the weather pattern changes we discussed above are seen severely weakening the polar vortex in the very bottom levels of the stratosphere.
> We can see in the corner that the zonal wind at the polar circle is 0m/s, which means this would be officially classified as a major stratospheric warming event.
Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Polar^#1 Vortex^#2 Stratosphere^#3 over^#4 event^#5
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So you've probably read about it somewhere, or are witnessing the cold snap nothern/central Europe is going through, which by the way is laughable in comparison to the midwest US and Russia. As I live in the Netherlands I was quite surprised that we would get snow mid February as we get mild winters.
I started searching some explanations and found something about weakening jet streams and a polar vortex. I'm kind of curious as to why this is happening and how climate change would effect this in the future, for Europe? It's quite a complex subject so I can't get the gist of it.
There are currently some predictions of this happening and possibly affecting Ireland. Similar phenomena have been linked with major snowfalls we had in 2010 and 2018 in Ireland. The now famous "Beast from the East" hit us in March 2018, giving us our worst snow since 1982. I know a bit about Sudden Stratospheric Warming and that its effects could take a while to impact us and that it is no guarantee of bad weather. Still, it would be interesting to get people's thoughts and experiences of it from here, rather than just from the typical formal sources.
