Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Weather: Polar Vortex

Weather affects us all, whether we like it or not. I’m a librarian here at Greenburgh but as many of my fellow staff members will tell you, I tend to act as the in house meteorologist. Growing up and living in the northeast, the seasons always fascinated me. Factoring in that I am a librarian, I decided to do some research about why weather happens when it does. What better place to work than a library where access to this information is plentiful. In this series of posts I’m going to shed some light on each season and our everyday weather… we know when it happens but do we know why? 

We all know when winter has struck, even if it’s not December 21st. The first feeling of the biting wind tingling our red tinged cheeks is a sure fire sign that old man winter has made his way back to New York. Winter can be pretty unpredictable in this part of the country (i.e. The Yankees 2018 Season Opener was canceled because of an April 2nd snowstorm!). We all can expect average cold temperatures in the 30s and 40s and the occasional snow storm but what about those deep freezes? When temperatures struggle to get into double digits, it can be the effect of a polar vortex. Although it may sound like something out of the Polar Express, a polar vortex is actually a pretty common weather occurrence in certain parts of the world. Read on to find out more about this chilly weather phenomenon. 

• January 5th, 2014 - Green Bay, Wisconsin: -18 degrees F
• January 6th, 2014 -  Babbitt, Minnesota:  −37 degrees F
• January 7th, 2014 -  New York, New York: 4 degrees F
• January 7th, 2014 - Atlanta, Georgia: 7 degrees F

If you'd like to learn more about Polar Vortexes and cold weather in general, check out these resources:
 

• Weather 101 : from Doppler Radar and Long-Range Forecasts to the Polar Vortex and Climate Change, Everything You Need to Know about the Study of Weather by Kathleen Sears
• Britannica Academic: Polar Vortex
• LiveScience: Polar Vortex: The Chilly Science of an Arctic Blast
• Columbia University - Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory - What is the Polar Vortex, and How Does it Influence Weather