MARCH 1957 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 89 THE WEATHER AND CIRCULATION OF MARCH 1957' A Month With An Extensive Polar Block and Expanded Circumpolar Vortex

• Main Author: Howard M. Frazier
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baffin Bay; Gulf of Alaska; New Siberian Islands; Baffin; Davis Strait; Novaya Zemlya; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.394.7950; http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/085/mwr-085-03-0089.pdf

In the previous article of this series, Woffinden [13] described the inception of a pronounced index cycle. Its initiation was associated with blocking which shifted from the Gulf of Alaska early in February to the areas of Baffin Bay and Novaya Zemlya by the latter half of the month. During March 1957 blocking continued in the Baffin Bay-Davis Strait area, but the second area of blocking moved eastward from Novaya Zemlya to the New Siberian Islands north of Siberia. The expansion of the circumpolar vortex, which had begun in February in response to the development of the two blocking surges, reached a maximum in March. The expanded nature of the circumpolar zonal circulation during the month was associated with important precipitation in the drought-stricken area of the southcentral Great Plains of the United States as well as with a partial temperature reversal from the February pattern.