The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018
Public attention has recently focused on high-impact extreme weather events in midlatitudes that originate in the sub-Arctic. We investigate movements of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) and related changes in lower atmospheric circulation during the February-March 2018 “Beast from the East” col...
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1803980 2023-07-30T04:01:11+02:00 The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 Overland, James Hall, Richard Hanna, Edward Karpechko, Alexey Vihma, Timo Wang, Muyin Zhang, Xiangdong 2021-08-25 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803980 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1803980 https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803980 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1803980 https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 doi:10.3390/atmos11060664 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2021 ftosti https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 2023-07-11T10:04:59Z Public attention has recently focused on high-impact extreme weather events in midlatitudes that originate in the sub-Arctic. We investigate movements of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) and related changes in lower atmospheric circulation during the February-March 2018 “Beast from the East” cold winter event that dramatically affected much of Europe and north-central North America. This study demonstrates that the movement of the SPV is a key linkage in late winter subarctic and northern midlatitude extreme weather events. February–March 2018 saw two types of subarctic-midlatitude weather connections. In the first type, the SPV was displaced from the pole to lower latitudes over North America in February and then was found over northern Siberia in March. Mid-February and mid-March are examples of persistent near vertically aligned geopotential height structures of the atmospheric circulation. These structures over North America and Eurasia advected cold Arctic air southward. The second type of cold surface event was associated with a weak regional SPV and a sudden stratospheric warming event over Europe during the second half of February. These late winter linkage events that arise through dynamic instabilities of the SPV are more common in the last decade, but the potential role of enhanced Arctic amplification is uncertain. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Subarctic Siberia SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Arctic Atmosphere 11 6 664 |
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Open Polar |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Overland, James Hall, Richard Hanna, Edward Karpechko, Alexey Vihma, Timo Wang, Muyin Zhang, Xiangdong The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
Public attention has recently focused on high-impact extreme weather events in midlatitudes that originate in the sub-Arctic. We investigate movements of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) and related changes in lower atmospheric circulation during the February-March 2018 “Beast from the East” cold winter event that dramatically affected much of Europe and north-central North America. This study demonstrates that the movement of the SPV is a key linkage in late winter subarctic and northern midlatitude extreme weather events. February–March 2018 saw two types of subarctic-midlatitude weather connections. In the first type, the SPV was displaced from the pole to lower latitudes over North America in February and then was found over northern Siberia in March. Mid-February and mid-March are examples of persistent near vertically aligned geopotential height structures of the atmospheric circulation. These structures over North America and Eurasia advected cold Arctic air southward. The second type of cold surface event was associated with a weak regional SPV and a sudden stratospheric warming event over Europe during the second half of February. These late winter linkage events that arise through dynamic instabilities of the SPV are more common in the last decade, but the potential role of enhanced Arctic amplification is uncertain. |
author |
Overland, James Hall, Richard Hanna, Edward Karpechko, Alexey Vihma, Timo Wang, Muyin Zhang, Xiangdong |
author_facet |
Overland, James Hall, Richard Hanna, Edward Karpechko, Alexey Vihma, Timo Wang, Muyin Zhang, Xiangdong |
author_sort |
Overland, James |
title |
The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
title_short |
The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
title_full |
The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
title_fullStr |
The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Polar Vortex and Extreme Weather: The Beast from the East in Winter 2018 |
title_sort |
polar vortex and extreme weather: the beast from the east in winter 2018 |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803980 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1803980 https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Subarctic Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Subarctic Siberia |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803980 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1803980 https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 doi:10.3390/atmos11060664 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060664 |
container_title |
Atmosphere |
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11 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
664 |
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1772811944932147200 |