Europe Hammered by Winter, Is North America Next?

[Dead_Parrot]

Cross-post from Science

For the first half of this year's winter, the big news was warm temperatures and lack of snow. Ski resorts were covered in bare dirt, while January temperatures in southern California topped July highs.

Then, out of the blue, Europe got clobbered: Over the past two weeks, temperatures in Eastern Europe have nose-dived to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit). Blizzards and the bone-chilling cold have resulted in the deaths of over 550 people so far, with rooftop-high snow drifts trapping tens of thousands of villagers in their homes and cutting off access to entire towns. It has even snowed as far south as North Africa.

NASA climatologist Bill Patzert of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains what happened: "A couple of weeks ago, Mother Nature did an about face. The tight polar vortex that had bottled up the cold arctic air in the beginning of winter suddenly weakened. Cold air swept out of Siberia and invaded Europe and the Far East."

The "tight polar vortex" is caused by the Arctic Oscillation (AO), a see-sawing pressure difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes. When the pressure difference is high, a whirlpool of air forms around the North Pole. That’s what happened earlier this winter: the whirlpool was more forceful, corralling the cold air and keeping it nearer the pole.

More: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/16feb_deepfreeze/

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Hubby and I have been talking about it

Conveyor Belt...the weather might be evidence of it stopping. Too much fresh water (from ice melt) can do this.

[Yo_Mama]

3. The AO (Arctic Oscillation) isn't new

It is closely related to the NAO, which in one phase creates conditions for bad hurricanes in the Atlantic in the summer following, so the price for our winter may be a more stormy summer, depending on how this develops over the next few months.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_oscillation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_oscillation

When I was a kid my folks told me about all these weather patterns, and they also gave dates as to when they were supposed to shift again. 40 years later, what they predicted did indeed happen in northern Europe, the US Atlantic coast, and the US Pacific coast, so I assume that nothing much has changed about this part of the weather cycle.

[Kurmudgeon]

2. North America just had a couple of hard winters, it just may be our turn to have a mild one.

I've enjoyed not having to use my 4x4 truck as much this time around, that's for sure.