Several states in the Midwest and now in the South are chilled from a winter freeze that reached record low temperatures this week, resulting in many canceled flights and school days. The storm brewed after a polar vortex came down from the North Pole and caused temperatures to drop as low as 16 degrees below zero, with wind chills reaching 48 degrees below zero, according to the Associated Press. The Daily Bruin spoke with James Murakami, staff meteorologist at UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, about how this cold storm happened.
Daily Bruin: What is a “polar vortex,” and how does it work?
James Murakami: The “polar vortex” is very basically a large, cold, low pressure area, and low pressure systems are generally associated with inclement weather. The air around low pressure rises and rising motion is conducive toward condensation and moisture.
DB: Is this an unusual occurrence?
JM: The polar vortex isn’t a unique thing. There are vortices in the polar regions all the time, it’s just that this one particular polar vortex came far enough south that it came into the lower 48 states. Most of the time it might be affecting Alaska or most of Canada.
This is just a random event, so you can’t say whether this is really unusual or not. They had a different polar vortex affect a part of Europe recently, but it wasn’t the same polar vortex that came (to the U.S.).
DB: How much longer will this storm last?
JM: It’s getting milder now, relatively speaking, and looking at the jet stream’s predicted patterns, it looks like things will get a lot better in the next three or four days, at least in the Midwest. It should warm up considerably by this weekend. They’ll still get their share of cold weather of course, but … any cold outbreaks in the next few weeks … should be more typical.
Compiled by Kristen Taketa, Bruin senior staff.