Freezing Your Ass Off in Florida Is Also a Symptom of Climate Change
Arctic weather in Florida?
Yep.
Residents of South Florida should be on the lookout for cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees. (Yes, really.)
How could this be when the planet is record-hot?
Every winter, an extremely cold pool of air forms over the Arctic. This super-frigid air is normally trapped in the polar vortex, a gigantic circular weather pattern around the North Pole. That keeps the Arctic in deep-freeze mode for the winter.
Need-to-Know: A polar-vortex jailbreak is underway
However, the vortex is weakening, allowing the Arctic-air pool to escape south when conditions are right. Researchers now believe it is the combination of a warmer Arctic and the loss of sea ice, along with a strong ridge of high pressure off the west coast of North America, that allows the polar-vortex jailbreak.
Need-to-Know: The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else
Climate change is heating up the Arctic far faster than anywhere else in the world. The ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk rapidly—over 50 percent of the summer ice extent disappeared in just the last 20 years. Without its ice cover, the Arctic Ocean is warming, especially under 24 hours of sunlight in summer.
Warmer water means there is less ice, even in winter when there are 24 hours of darkness.
The polar-vortex jailbreak doesn’t happen every winter. It did happen in early January of 2018, when Juneau, Alaska was warmer than Palm Beach. It also happened in January 2014.
Need-to-Know: Extremely extreme weather includes extreme cold at times.
See NtK America's Whipsaw Weather Future: How extreme weather is becoming extremely extreme.
The current blast of Arctic air won’t last more than a few days.
That said, the extremely-cold pool of air in the Arctic is shrinking as the planet warms. It may mean fewer and less intense Arctic jailbreaks in the future.
What we can expect with 100% certainity is more extremely extreme weather.
Until next time, be well.
Stephen