Europe Was Colder Than the North Pole This Week. How Could That Be?<br />“It’s locking in that cold air at the high latitudes in the Arctic region,” Dr. Cohen said, comparing the<br />polar vortex to a dam holding back the frigid arctic air from the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.<br />Dr. Cohen is the author of a 2017 study that linked a warming Arctic to the intermittent blasts of cold<br />that those of us in the Northern Hemisphere have come to know as the polar vortex.<br />The North Pole is above the freezing mark in the dead of winter; there are no direct measurements there, but merging satellite data with other temperature data shows<br />that temperatures soared this week to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).<br />Norway recorded the lowest temperatures of the cold snap: minus 43 degrees Fahrenheit<br />(minus 42 Celsius) in the southeast part of the country on Thursday.<br />This has always happened from time to time, but a growing body of research suggests<br />that because of climate change the warming Arctic is weakening the polar vortex.<br />Dr. Cohen says the loss of ice creates patterns of high pressure near the Barents Sea and Kara Sea off northern Russia.<br />But sometimes that dam bursts as the polar vortex weakens and allows cold air to escape the Arctic to more temperate climes.<br />That high pressure blocks the low-pressure system of the polar vortex, weakening it in the process<br />When it behaves normally, the polar vortex helps trap cold air in the Arctic.
