The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018
Abstract
Public attention has recently focused on high-impact extreme weather events in midlatitudes that originate in the sub-Arctic. We investigate movements of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) and related changes in lower atmospheric circulation during the February-March 2018 “Beast from the East” cold winter event that dramatically affected much of Europe and north-central North America. This study demonstrates that the movement of the SPV is a key linkage in late winter subarctic and northern midlatitude extreme weather events. February–March 2018 saw two types of subarctic-midlatitude weather connections. In the first type, the SPV was displaced from the pole to lower latitudes over North America in February and then was found over northern Siberia in March. Mid-February and mid-March are examples of persistent near vertically aligned geopotential height structures of the atmospheric circulation. These structures over North America and Eurasia advected cold Arctic air southward. The second type of cold surface event was associated with a weak regional SPV and a sudden stratospheric warming event over Europe during the second half of February. These late winter linkage events that arise through dynamic instabilities of the SPV are more common in the last decade, but the potential role of enhanced Arctic amplification ismore »
- Authors:
-
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Seattle, WA (United States). Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. (PMEL)
- Bristol Univ. (United Kingdom). School of Geographical Sciences
- Univ. of Lincoln (United Kingdom). School of Geography and Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health
- Finnish Meteorological Inst. (FMI), Helsinki (Finland)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Seattle, WA (United States). Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. (PMEL); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Joint Inst. for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean
- Finnish Meteorological Inst. (FMI), Helsinki (Finland); Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). International Arctic Research Center and Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1803980
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0020640
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Atmosphere (Basel)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Atmosphere (Basel); Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2073-4433
- Publisher:
- MDPI
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; polar vortex; Arctic; severe weather; potential vorticity
Citation Formats
Overland, James, Hall, Richard, Hanna, Edward, Karpechko, Alexey, Vihma, Timo, Wang, Muyin, and Zhang, Xiangdong. The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.3390/atmos11060664.
Overland, James, Hall, Richard, Hanna, Edward, Karpechko, Alexey, Vihma, Timo, Wang, Muyin, & Zhang, Xiangdong. The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018. United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664
Overland, James, Hall, Richard, Hanna, Edward, Karpechko, Alexey, Vihma, Timo, Wang, Muyin, and Zhang, Xiangdong. Mon .
"The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018". United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803980.
@article{osti_1803980,
title = {The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018},
author = {Overland, James and Hall, Richard and Hanna, Edward and Karpechko, Alexey and Vihma, Timo and Wang, Muyin and Zhang, Xiangdong},
abstractNote = {Public attention has recently focused on high-impact extreme weather events in midlatitudes that originate in the sub-Arctic. We investigate movements of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) and related changes in lower atmospheric circulation during the February-March 2018 “Beast from the East” cold winter event that dramatically affected much of Europe and north-central North America. This study demonstrates that the movement of the SPV is a key linkage in late winter subarctic and northern midlatitude extreme weather events. February–March 2018 saw two types of subarctic-midlatitude weather connections. In the first type, the SPV was displaced from the pole to lower latitudes over North America in February and then was found over northern Siberia in March. Mid-February and mid-March are examples of persistent near vertically aligned geopotential height structures of the atmospheric circulation. These structures over North America and Eurasia advected cold Arctic air southward. The second type of cold surface event was associated with a weak regional SPV and a sudden stratospheric warming event over Europe during the second half of February. These late winter linkage events that arise through dynamic instabilities of the SPV are more common in the last decade, but the potential role of enhanced Arctic amplification is uncertain.},
doi = {10.3390/atmos11060664},
journal = {Atmosphere (Basel)},
number = 6,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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