HOW GLOBAL WARMING INFLUENCES EXTREME COLD WEATHER CONDTIONS

It gets confusing when the global temperature is said to be rising exponentially and yet snow continues falling late into spring. However, there is a direct connection between extreme cold weather and global warming. An understanding of the workings of jet streams and polar vortex would help clear this confusion. As the earth is experiencing global warming, the Arctic is warming up so much faster than the mid latitude. Why? As the arctic warms, ice sheets and glaciers melts, leaving dark open water in its place. This dark water absorbs more of the sun’s heat, making the arctic warm even faster. This leads to the narrowing of the temperature gradient between the arctic and the mid latitude. The temperature difference is very important because it drives the jet streams; the Jet streams are a narrow band of strong winds high up in the atmosphere that often pushes our weather systems along. As the temperature difference decreases, scientists suspects that the jet stream slows down and begins to meander.  A slower jet stream makes weather systems less predictable. With waiver jet streams, there is also concerns that the polar vortex can be pulled further south during winter.  The Polar Vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air over Earth’s North and South Poles. When the jet stream weakens, it becomes waiver, allowing that cold air to dip southward in some places while warmer air pushes northward elsewhere.  This explains why extreme cold snaps occurred in north America and Europe while Australia was experiencing extreme heat wave. To get a better understanding, watch the video below.