How a warming climate leads to cold snaps:The reduction in the amount of Arctic sea ice is weakening the whirling jet of air known to weather-lovers as the polar vortex, allowing cold blasts to dip into North America and Eurasia.
The article referred to states:
The
loss of sea ice may be weakening the polar vortex, allowing cold blasts
to dip south from the Arctic, across North America, Europe and Russia, a
new study says....Here's what scientists involved in the research think is happening: The evidence is clear that the Arctic has been warming faster than the rest of the planet. That warming is reducing the amount of Arctic sea ice,
allowing more heat to escape from the ocean. The scientists think that
the ocean energy that is being released is causing a weakening of the
polar vortex winds over the Arctic, which normally keep cold air
centered over the polar region. That weakening is then allowing cold
polar air to slip southward more often.
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