Monday, November 10, 2014

The upcoming cold snap is not the polar vortex

CBS News Ignores Facts to Breathlessly Report on "Polar Vortex": The upcoming cold snap is not the polar vortex. The polar vortex is something that's always been around, but it gained legs last winter as a new, scary-sounding way to describe cold weather on social media. The polar vortex is a large cyclone that sits over the Arctic, serving as sort of a wall that keeps cold air confined to the far northern latitudes. Sometimes the polar vortex becomes unstable and pieces of it break off—if one of these broken pieces swings down over Canada or the United States, it can bring with it bitterly cold air like we saw last winter.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been asking people and this article confirms what I thought: the "Polar Vortex" (cue scary music)didn't exist in the public consciousness until they started hyping it last winter.


Jeff

Unknown said...

Now that the Ebola panic has lessened, they have to hype something, so the Polar Vortex is elected.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Weather Channel did a long and very detailed deal yesterday about how this coming event did meet the definition of a polar vortex.

Unknown said...

Good for them.

August West said...

The Media outlets have become snake oil salesmen. Summers are warm/hot and winters are cool/cold. It's called weather!

Graham Powell said...

It's El Nino for a new generation.

Unknown said...

And just about as much fun.

Gerard said...

Don't get me started on that Al Nano guy, Graham. I'm still mad at him for all the trouble he caused.