The polar vortex has fractured, and the eastern U.S. faces a punishing stretch of winter weather

Source: Washington Post

The polar vortex has fractured, and the eastern U.S. faces a punishing stretch of winter weather

Forecasts call for a very cold and stormy pattern, just underway, to peak in a few weeks

By Jason Samenow January 15 at 12:32 PM
The swirling winds tens of thousands of feet high in the sky above the Arctic — the dreaded polar vortex — broke apart into three parts to ring in 2019. Now the eastern half of the United States is about to feel the consequences.

Weather models project the onset of a severe and punishing winter weather pattern in just over 10 days, with extreme cold and heightened storminess. In fact, the transition to this harsh winter pattern has likely already begun.

Before and during the vortex disruption, locations east of the Rockies basked in unusually mild weather for weeks. Washington witnessed 28 days of warmer-than-normal weather, and the first half of January ranked among the top 10 warmest on record in Minneapolis and Milwaukee:

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But the polar vortex split, which forecasters predicted in December, has likely triggered a transition toward a much more wintry pattern.

Even though the vortex split around the start of the New Year, it often takes weeks for the effects to become apparent in day-to-day weather. The vortex zips around the North Pole high in the stratosphere about twice as high up as commercial aircraft fly, so its downward propagation through the atmosphere is a drawn out process.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/01/15/polar-vortex-has-fractured-eastern-us-faces-punishing-stretch-winter-weather-just-underway/