IS GLOBAL WARMING THE CAUSE OF THE POLAR VORTEX?

Is Global Warming the Cause of the Polar Vortex?

Dusty | Science Page

The term 'Polar Vortex' has recently gained notoriaty and general mass acceptance as a legitimate meteorlogical phenomenon. But, what exactly is this Polar Vortex and what is causing it to appear now?

The PV may be colder in the future!

There is one theory circulating through the weather science community that global warming is actually the root cause of this vortex. The thinking behind this is fairly straightforward: as the earth heats up, due to global warming, warm air rises and goes up - up north. This warm air displaces the cold air that sits at the north pole and pushes it down, swirling it in a vortex as it does so. Therefore, as the earth continues to warm up we will be feeling a lot more of this cold air in the future. Some scientists have even speculated that global warming may cause such an excess of polar air to move south that it will cause another ice age to set in across the upper half of North America.
A little know fact: there have been polar vortexes in the past, even during the time of the dinosaurs, and now they are extinct because of the ice age.
Close to home local TV meteorologist Tim Wrack of Newzwatch 12, has never run across the polar vortex, in all the 23 years he has been working the weather desk, until this year. "There have been cold snaps, winter weather, and arctic breezes that have felt like this vortex, but, they never caused this much attention," he comments. Talking about the changing weather patterns he knowlingly says, "we are entering a new age in weather". With all the new weather events, most likely due to global warming, Wrack feels like a fish out of water. Even a decade ago there was cold, snow, freezing rain, even the wind chill factor. But, lately, he has had to add flash freeze and polar vortex to his vocabulary, just to name a couple. Poking fun at his new reality he jokes, "my weather map is so full of foreign symbols I feel like I am in a bad dream or in Russia". He blames global warming as well.

Toronto | 12:13