The Polar Express has left the area, taking along the infamous Polar Vortex.
Most people are aware of the Christmas tale of the train carrying children to Santa’s work area, but “
polar vortex” may be new to many. Remember, not too long ago when the thermometer seemed “stuck at 97° ” for an extended time of sticky summer heat and we looked forward to “normal weather”? Then, after a mild
Fall, things once again,began to change!
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A warm November day of 2013 ended with the temperature falling 40 degrees overnight to bring in “Winter”, unusually low for our area. Forecasters explained that Arctic low temperatures are usually confined to the Canadian region, but somehow arctic winds found the weather-door open to flow southerly this winter , causing problems as far south as Florida... A new term “Polar Vortex” came into our vocabulary. Canadians were hearing earthquake sounds in the frigid -30-40° cold. We learned another new term “
Cryoseims”, a term used by weather forecasters explaining the action of underground water freezing and causing rocks to expand. Above-ground residents found pictures on their walls shaking and cracks several inches wide in the ground. A Frost-quake? Unusual weather can even expand our vocabulary!
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| North Atlantic Gulf Stream |
While U.S. residents seem to be experiencing severe and abrupt weather changes, Norway seems to be experiencing “business as usual”. Norway shares the same latitude as Alaska, Greenland and Siberia, but in comparison, Norway has a pleasant climate while the coastal areas have comparatively mild winters due to the Gulf Stream that moderates the area weather. Oslo experienced its warmest Christmas since records began in 1937,
while in Helsinki and southern Finland, the second half of December was
the mildest in 30 years. In Koege, outside Copenhagen, the mercury reached
11.6ºC (52.9ºF) on Christmas Eve..
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In the late 1960s, University of California professor Jacob Bjerknes found an important piece of the oft-changeable weather-puzzle. As a young scientist in Norway, Bjerknes had gained fame by publishing the first understandable description of the life cycle of storms in temperate latitudes. Now, fifty years later, he was the first to see a connection between unusually warm sea-surface temperatures and the weak easterly winds bringing heavy rainfall
Usually, sea-surface readings off South America's west coast range from the 60s to 70s°F. When the easterly trade winds strengthens, colder water is driven along the equator and the west coast of South America. Only the Pacific Ocean has this phenemona. This doesn’t happen in the Atlantic, so Norway does not experience these changes.Currently, the tropical Pacific is now expected to warm throughout 2014 according to scientists from NOAAs Climate Prediction Center .
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This might produce a massive source of energy that would be strong enough to drive up global weather temperatures, creating the first official “hot period” since 2010, the world’s hottest year ever recorded .Are we are in an official “La Niña” cycle, or will it be a time of El Niño and who are they?
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The original definition of El Niño goes back to the eighteenth or nineteenth century when Peruvian sailors
coined the term to describe a warm southward current that appeared annually around Christmas off the Peruvian coast. Hence the name El Niño, Spanish for "the Child," referring to the Christ Child.The term "El Niño" (or warm episode) is not a local warm current, but warming of the tropical Pacific surface waters occurring every two to seven years and associated with changes in the atmospheric circulation worldwide.These equatorial waves are not the familiar surf seen on the surface, but very large-scale motions that carry changes in currents and temperatures over thousands of miles. The period of these waves is measured in months, and they take typically three months to more than a year to cross the Pacific.
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Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It takes the rain with it, causing extensive drought in the western Pacific and rainfall in the normally dry eastern Pacific. This easterly wind flow and possible blasts from the north area can make our weather interesting.if the winds are warm and the jet stream stays to the north, we might have a mild winter!
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However, we may experience the effect of “The Little Girl”. In Spanish, she is “ La Niña”, the little girl.
The results of La Niña are mostly the opposite of those of El Niño; for example, during the winter, La Niña would cause a wet period in the Midwestern U.S., while El Niño would typically cause a dry period in that area. La Niña causes above-average precipitation across the northern Midwest, and eastern regions. Meanwhile, precipitation in the southwestern and southeastern states is below average.This also allows way above average hurricanes in the Atlantic and less in the Pacific.
In Canada, La Niña will, generally, cause a cooler, snowier winter, such as the near-record-breaking amounts of snow recorded in the La Niña winter of 2007/2008 in Eastern Canada.”The Little Girl”is expected to bring a cooling period. Is this "The winter of 2014" in Wisconsin?!
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Due to oceanic temperatures and the direction of the winds, our weather system can swing an average of every three to five years. Critics of global warming believe this is only the rhythm of nature, and the only
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| " Looking ahead to tomorrow..." |
predictable thing about weather is that it is unpredictable. Winter temperature swinging from -10° to 35° with rain within twenty-four hours seem to be the new norm. What’s going on? We’ve experienced a variety of conditions already in this early 2014.
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Now, if only we can keep our polar vortexes trapped up north, we may be spared future cryoseims!
What’s next? Stay tuned..
