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• #Cold weather polar vortex drivers#

A number of other city facilities could also step in if necessary, including libraries and police stations. Kedzie Ave., which will be open 24 hours. Six community service centers across Chicago will double as warming centers, including the Garfield Community Service Center at 10 S. This week’s temperatures combined with the wind could lead to the onset of frostbite in less than 30 minutes, the National Weather Service said.

February 2015 tied for the coldest February on record and ranked as the 10th-coldest month, with eight days with temperatures below zero. The polar vortex struck again in the winter of 2014-2015. Pat Quinn declared the state a disaster area in order to mobilize members of the Illinois National Guard to help with storm response, calling several large military vehicles called “wreckers” - normally used on the battlefield to tow tanks - to help clear highways of overturned trucks.

#Cold weather polar vortex drivers#

State police helped hundreds of stranded motorists and advised drivers not to travel, noting that the cold had rendered road salt ineffective. 6, 2014, when the low was minus 16 with a wind chill of negative 42. It was this winter when the term polar vortex rose to prominence and local weather service meteorologist Ricky Castro coined the term “Chiberia.” The average temperature was 18.8 degrees. The winter of 2013-2014, which ranked as the third coldest on record, had 23 days with subzero lows. “This is partly why this jet stream pattern tends to be long-lived once it sets up.” “The stronger ridge does two things: It pumps cold air into central North America, which deepens the downstream trough, and it also becomes more persistent because larger jet stream waves move more slowly than small ones,” Francis said. It isn't like a tornado or hurricane it's not something you can look up and see in the sky one day there's no freakish spinning whirlwind of ice and snow roaring down from Canada.A growing body of evidence suggests another warming trend in the Pacific Ocean is believed to be causing the jet stream that confines the polar vortex to warp further, with warm air penetrating near the Pacific Northwest and a lobe of cold air sinking into the Midwest and Northeast.

In any event, don't fear the polar vortex. "Warm temperatures in the Arctic cause the jet stream to take these wild swings, and when it swings farther south, that causes cold air to reach farther south," said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, who published a study on the phenomenon last year. Some scientists – but not all – say there may be a connection between global warming and the wandering vortex: The theory is that when weird warmth invades the Arctic, some of the cold that's supposed to stay up there – including the infamous polar vortex – instead sloshes down south into North America and Europe. Scientists report that the polar vortex appears to be wandering more often in recent years. It can also divide into several parts, then get back together again, like the cop in Terminator 2. Its position can determine what part of the USA the Arctic air will invade. The vortex is strongest during the winter and usually weakens or even disappears in the summer.