{"id":1358,"date":"2014-11-19T23:10:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T04:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2021-10-18T11:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:18:16","slug":"where-is-all-this-cold-air-coming-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2014\/11\/where-is-all-this-cold-air-coming-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is all this cold air coming from?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all the stories about the record-breaking cold air, the unbelievably heavy snow in Buffalo, and other frigid weather conditions, it is not surprising that I have been asked where all this cold air is coming from, particularly so early in the winter season. \u00a0To answer this, you need to look at where the air is coming from. \u00a0The flow this year has brought us air that originated in the Siberian high plains region. \u00a0This year the region has seen record levels of snow and cold temperatures for so early in their winter. \u00a0The mass of air that has moved through the US Central Plains and down into the South formed above this record snowfall, creating a brutally cold and dry pool of air. \u00a0Often, as the air moves away from the area where it formed, it modifies as it passes over bare ground that is warmer and moister than Siberia. \u00a0This year, however, the extensive snow cover in North America has insulated the ground from interacting with the Siberian air mass, allowing it to move much farther south than usual with little modification. \u00a0The Northern Hemisphere snow and ice map below shows the extent of snow across both Asia and North America.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: US National Ice Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The weather pattern that has directed all this cold air to us is called an “omega block”, which takes its name from the shape of the air flow, which looks like the Greek letter Omega. \u00a0You can read about this weather pattern in this Slate<\/em> article<\/a>. \u00a0Slate also has a separate article<\/a> which explains the relationship of the Omega block to the “Polar Vortex”, an often misused phrase that has been used by popular media outlets in recent years to describe cold outbreaks.<\/p>\n

In spite of all the hype, the cold conditions this year do not prove that global warming is a hoax. \u00a0This is weather, not climate (see this Washington Post article<\/a>). \u00a0Weather describes short-term atmospheric conditions, where climate describes long-term patterns. \u00a0Weather is like your mood; climate is like your personality. \u00a0Or like a smart 7th grade 4-H student once told me, climate is the clothes in your closet, but weather is what you put on today. \u00a0You can read a good commentary about this at the Washington Post (here<\/a>). \u00a0In fact, if you use the Climate Reanalyzer web site at\u00a0https:\/\/cci-reanalyzer.org\/DailySummary\/<\/a>, you can see that even though we are in the deep freeze in the lower 48 states, Alaska is well above normal in temperature, and the earth as a whole is 0.4 degrees C above the 1979-2000 baseline.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: Climate Reanalyzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The biggest question remaining is where the record-setting snowfall in Siberia came from. \u00a0Like many climate questions, it is hard to pin it on a specific set of causes. \u00a0Climatologists are looking at the impacts of less sea ice in the Arctic as well as the impact of several volcanic eruptions which have occurred in the last few months, potentially cooling the atmosphere through reflection of sunlight back to space. \u00a0But it will take time to unravel how this pattern set up. \u00a0In the meanwhile, warmer air should return for the next few days before the next cold blast enters the US. \u00a0Let the roller coaster continue!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all the stories about the record-breaking cold air, the unbelievably heavy snow in Buffalo, and other frigid weather conditions, it is not surprising that I have been asked where all this cold air is coming from, particularly so early in the winter season. \u00a0To answer this, you need to look at where the air […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-sources-of-weather-and-climate-data"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22906,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/22906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}