Big winter snows in the North could be fueled by Arctic sea ice loss
A new study finds a direct link between an extreme snow event in Europe and declining Arctic sea ice and suggests it could be part of a pattern.
ByMadeleine Stone
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In mid-February 2018, a strong high-pressure weather system slid over Scandinavia, bringing cold easterly winds that plunged Europe into a historic deep freeze. Arctictemperatures gripped the continent for weeks; snow fell as far south as Rome. In the British Isles, early March blizzards produced 25-foot snow drifts.
New research suggests that this astonishing cold wave, dubbed the Beast from the East, was supercharged with snow thanks in part to a dearth of sea ice in the Barents Sea, off the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia. It points to a different and poorly studied way in which declining Arctic sea ice can impact the weather further south distinct from the meandering jet stream phenomenon that has gotten so much press.
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Polar Vortex Split Into Two, Threatens To Send US, Europe, Canada Into deep Freeze
Arctic s polar vortex is a reoccurring winter phenomenon with strong cold winds that circle westward around the pole causing dark frosty winters.
Meteorologists have predicted that the polar vortex, which is splitting into two and swirling southward, will send the US and European countries into a chilling deep freeze. A notorious swirl of ultracold winds around a low-pressure area due to the major stratospheric temperature spike expected to sweep across these countries causing an extreme dip in temperatures. Canada, Eurasia much of Western Europe and the US, spine chilling cold winter with heavy snow along the US East Coast will ensue, according to several western weather forecasts.