The deep freeze that most of the North American continent plunged into at the start of this year may become more frequent across the entire Northern Hemisphere, thanks to a new-found link between the Polar Vortex and melting northern Pacific sea ice off the coast of Siberia.
Using historical data and computer simulations, a team of South Korean and U.S. researchers found that climate change may be driving more frequent bouts of intense cold air rushing down from the High Arctic.
As global temperatures are predicted to rise in coming years, the expansive ice packs, particularly those in the seas off the coast of Russia, will melt away and leave behind ever-larger areas of open water that won’t have a chance to freeze over during the winter months.
These uncovered seas end up releasing energy into the atmosphere, which leads to a weakening of our jet stream, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
Their results point to a decreased sea-ice cover during November and December north of Siberia that appears to be tied to low temperatures in Canada and the U.S. in January and February of this year.
Arctic seas appear to reach their lowest levels in the month of September, and this study found that 2012 saw the lowest ice levels ever recorded. And while levels are slightly higher this year, they are still 40 per cent lower than they were in the 1970’s, Colorado-based climate researcher Mark Serreze told The Associated Press.
The Polar Vortex is a naturally occurring weather system that sits over both poles of the Earth. The one in the north is centred between Baffin Island and northeast Siberia. The vortex is actually an area of low pressure that lives mainly in the stratosphere – a layer of the upper atmosphere above the area most common weather patterns reside.
Earlier this year, even normally-temperate parts of Canada were plunged into into an unusually cold deep freeze with biting winds and intense cold air outbreaks. Wind chills across southern Ontario regularly hit below - 30 C without relief for days, and the Maritime provinces suffered through blizzards the likes of which hadn’t been seen in decades.
(Photo courtesy Reuters)