Over the last few weeks I have seen a lot of discussion about the change in the weather pattern that has occurred due to the weakening of the polar vortex over the North Pole. There is a lot of misinformation about what the polar vortex is and how it affects weather and climate in the United States, so the authors of the new Polar Vortex blog at Climate.gov have put together this helpful discussion about what the polar vortex is and how it can and cannot affect our temperature and precipitation patterns. They also have a little discussion of current conditions and how the weather pattern has been changing lately. You can read more at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/polar-vortex/date-night-stratospheric-polar-vortex.