| Summary: | Anthropogenic climate change has caused Arctic sea ice to melt at a rapid rate, but up until recently it has not been considered that this melting would affect synoptic weather patterns, only long-term climate factors. This research attempts to establish a connection between melting Arctic sea ice, changes in the jet stream and tropospheric polar vortex, and the frequency of extreme cold weather events in the mid-latitudes. Cold events during the months of December-February are analyzed over the past decade and compared with a 30-year climatology using NCEP-DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis data, and correlated with measures of Arctic sea ice concentration. Observations are analyzed to show the relationship between loss of Arctic sea ice, a weakening jet stream, and changes in the frequency of cold days occurring in the mid-latitudes.
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