The biggest International weather news this week has been the Frigid Cold that engulfed almost the whole of contiguous United States on January 5, 6 and 7th with minimum temperatures in Metro cities like Chicago dropping to -32C! It was even colder due to wind chill factor, with feel of -52C!
Naturally headlines like "US colder than Mars" appeared around the globe, forgetting for a while that the Mars temperatures being compared were from the equatorial belt of Mars, and actually Mars is actually much more colder at the latitude of US, year round!!
We heard a lot also about the 'Polar Vortex', which was the cause of the cold arctic wind spilling down southward, riding the jet streams and also various other dynamics of weather.
A clip from PBS Newshour with Andrew Freedman of Climate Central explaining about Polar Vortex and the reason for the Frigid Cold is embedded below and provides a good explanation of the Polar Vortex.
With my visit to Chicago in October 2013, still fresh in my mind, compare the photo I clicked of the lake view from my Uncle's backyard in Oak Brook, Illinois, USA on October 21, with the one of the same area sent by my cousin on January 5, 2014
Naturally headlines like "US colder than Mars" appeared around the globe, forgetting for a while that the Mars temperatures being compared were from the equatorial belt of Mars, and actually Mars is actually much more colder at the latitude of US, year round!!
We heard a lot also about the 'Polar Vortex', which was the cause of the cold arctic wind spilling down southward, riding the jet streams and also various other dynamics of weather.
A clip from PBS Newshour with Andrew Freedman of Climate Central explaining about Polar Vortex and the reason for the Frigid Cold is embedded below and provides a good explanation of the Polar Vortex.
With my visit to Chicago in October 2013, still fresh in my mind, compare the photo I clicked of the lake view from my Uncle's backyard in Oak Brook, Illinois, USA on October 21, with the one of the same area sent by my cousin on January 5, 2014
Next time around, I'm going to Chicago in January for sure! I only hope the Polar Vortex gets stirred too!
