vortex Archives - usatoday24

The polar vortex collapsed for just a few hours, but it showed us how unstable this winter is coming

December 11, 2025 by usatoday24

Although it sounds complicated, the stratospheric polar vortex is, quite simply, the Earth’s large system of cold air and low pressure. One to the north and one to the south, rotating around the poles, acting as a barrier that keeps the frigid air away from the temperate zones of the planet. . And that’s exactly what happened in November. A sudden warming of the Arctic stratosphere (rises of up to 30 degrees in a few days) caused a huge mass of air to enter the troposphere and, in response, the westerly winds plummeted from strong values to almost 0 meters per second. El vórtice se paró. Something extremely rare at the end of November. And it’s not just a scientific curiosity; but it entails a brutal redistribution of air masses. However, the vortex did not break completely: it was a quick and strong blow that left the system in stand-by, but it started again relatively quickly. That’s why, the spectacular consequences that were expected So? While it is true that the warming was “historical”, “very rare” for the dates on which it occurred and “very abrupt”, it must be understood (above all) as a warning that the atmosphere is very unstable this winter. Like a wake-up call: something we have to monitor. What the models say. As explained by MeteoVigothe models indicate that the strength of the stratospheric winds (the “muscle” of the vortex) will decrease again in the coming days; But facing the last days of December (around the 26th) the vortex will tend to recover a more circular shape and an intensity close to the climatic average. And what does all this mean? For Europe (and specifically for Spain), the vortex is something important: determines the probability of cold winters, anticyclonic blockages in high latitudes and trains of Atlantic storms. That is to say, if the vortex strengthens heading into December there will be less probability of extreme arctic irruptions and, possibly, a greater weight of storms. However, all scenarios are open: the models continue to draw the busiest winter of the time. Image | In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

Something is moving in the north and the polar vortex is weaker than ever

November 25, 2025 by usatoday24

Something is happening in the north and we’ve been saying it for days. Forecasts pointed to a huge sudden stratospheric warming during the last week of November. I said ‘huge’ and it is not a rhetorical device: it is normally very difficult to know what consequences such a warming will have; but being so big, meteorologists they already speculate with a complete destabilization of the polar vortex. And the strange thing about all this is not that there is such a big “sudden stratospheric warming.” That’s relatively normal. The strange thing is that we are facing a very precocious one. Surely, before the earliest of the entire record. And that has set off all the alarms. What is the polar vortex? But let’s start at the beginning: the ‘polar vortex’ is a stream of strong winds (west → east) that revolves around the large reserves of cold air found above the planet’s poles. It is formed in the stratosphere; that is, at about 16-48 kilometers high. On a metaphorical (or ‘journalistic’ if you push me) level, the polar vortex is what the cold contains at the pole. Logic tells us that, in summer, the vortex is reduced to a minimum and, although it is true that we have never seen it disappear, it becomes so weak that it loses any influence over the time of the hemisphere. But in winter the situation changes and it does so radically. Very often, during the winter the vortex grows and, although “usually a solitary creature“and harmless, it is common for it to overflow and end up affecting the rest of the hemisphere. That is what it seems we are going to see these weeks. And what is sudden stratospheric warming?? To understand this process well, it is good to remember that the atmosphere is a “lasagna of air layers” and each of them follows its own logic. That is, they function quite differently and independently; but never completely independent. This is what happens between the air circulation in the troposphere (the one closest to the surface) and the circulation in the stratosphere (the layer directly above): they are related, yes; but, in substance, each one goes their own way. During the “sudden stratospheric warming“, a part of the troposphere warms rapidly and, as a consequence, invades the stratosphere, causing a profound alteration of the circulation at high altitude. That is, for a few days, everything turns upside down. Okay, so what’s going to happen? The data begins to indicate that the countdown has already been activated. As they pointed out from Meteored“a record has been recorded in the speed of the zonal wind of the polar vortex, this would be weaker than ever on those dates.” That is to say, we have just found the first sign that warming is already underway. The problem is that, as Víctor González pointed out“the ease of predicting sudden stratospheric warming in the medium term contrasts greatly with the difficulty of anticipating its consequences.” Hence, we already know with almost absolute certainty that something is going to happen in the stratosphere of the north pole, but it is not clear what is going to happen. And we know nothing of its consequences? Not for now. What’s more, it seems likely that the consequences would not be seen until mid-December. For now, the experts will have “monitor the alteration of the stratospheric polar vortex and then monitor its propagation to lower levels, finally observing how the tropospheric circulation and the polar jet may behave.” This is very meticulous work, but very necessary. We already know that this type of event is related to historic cold waves and, in that case, we better be prepared. Image | Severe Weather In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

While Spain was pending the rains, something strange was happening with the polar vortex

April 9, 2025 by usatoday24

The meteorology of the month of March has been marked by the wave of storms that have left intense rains throughout the Iberian Peninsula. While many monitored attentive to the possibility that the channels overflow in their surroundings, in the high layers of the atmosphere there was an important phenomenon, the disruption of the polar vortex. New animation. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), The agency responsible for analyzing weather and weather in the United States, has shown us the disruption of the polar vortex occurred during last March. He has done it through a new animation in which the drastic changes can be seen The polar vortex. First of all, remember that Polar vortex It is an intense atmospheric current that transports cold air around the pole at stratosphere. In winter, the polar circle stops receiving sunlight so the air at the height of the stratosphere cools. In contrast, the warm air of sub -reliable areas continues to be tempered at these altitudes, which leads to expand north. The terrestrial rotation makes this pressure a powerful current of air that surrounds the pole in winter. Although the current is always active, it suffers important changes throughout the year. The first change is in intensity: it is during the winter months that the winds of this current reach greater force, reaching its middle peak towards the beginning of January. The second change is in the direction. Due to the inclination of the earth’s axis, approximately between spring and autumn, the current moves away from the pole to the torque that loses intensity because the sun enlightens the pole again, heating his stratosphere and reducing the contrast with lower latitudes. This implies that high latitudes the current stops moving from west to this but does it from this to west. When the vortex breaks. However, the current can suffer a sudden change, a disruption. These cases are usually due to sudden stratospheric warming in the pole. This “pushes” the current out. This is what happenedexplains the NOAA, last March 9: rapid stratospheric warming generated a disruption of the current that has led her to circulate in reverse and intense in high latitudes. Return to normal. If a disruption occurs during winter, it is common for the vortex to return to its usual circulation after one of these disruptions. If this disruption occurs during spring, it is likely that the circulation will pass to its summer shape, outside the pole. It can be expected, due to the dates, that the evolution of the vortex now takes it back to the average. Last year We saw a vortex disruption that reversed the dominant direction of the wind in early March, however the vortex recovered its direction and intensity of these dates before reversing its spring channel. Graph in which the speed and direction of the stratospheric wind is illustrated in the 60ºN latitude. The fine blue line marks the average evolution in the 1991-2020 period; while the thickness marks the evolution between 2024 and 2025. The shadow represents the variability observed and the pink forecasts. Laura Ciasto/NOA “Like an atmospheric diva. ” This year the models indicate that this will not be the case, which implies that we are facing the change in earlier in the records since 1958. This concludes the “season” of activity of the polar vortex, a season marked by a high intensity circulation and important volatility. A closure that has lived up to the season, according to NOAA. “For a good part of this winter season, the polar vortex has been strong, stretched, and not very interested in interacting with the troposphere. But like a real atmospheric diva, the polar vortex had a last ace in the sleeve, disintegrate in a spectacular way and bring with him some cold air,” NOAA itself explains in a piece in his blog dedicated to the polar vortex. And then what? In the result of all this is that the circulation of the vortex is now maintained in northern Europe and that can reach affect weather of the continent. How this arrival will depend on factors such as the interaction between this mass of air and the troposphere or what low latitudes could reach circulation in that month of April. In Xataka | It seemed impossible for the rains of March to be bad news for someone. Until the watermelons and melons arrived Image | NOAA

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