Wrap up warm, there’s still a sting in this winter’s tail
EARLIER this week an event occurred somewhere between eight and 30 miles above the Earth in the stratosphere. One which is causing much excitement in meteorological circles.
During the dark days of winter the Polar Vortex swirls above the Artic, however, occasionally this icy merry-go round is susceptible to being disrupted by other weather patterns in the lower part of the atmosphere. This causes the vortex to split, forcing air in the stratosphere to collapse downwards and compress.
It is an occurrence known as Sudden Stratospheric Warming and can bring about extreme changes to the weather.
While we normally expect our weather to come in from the west bringing relatively mild air off the Atlantic, when a so-called SSW (if you will pardon the abbreviation) occurs, it pushes our jet stream further south, leading to a block of high pressure squatting like a toad over the North Atlantic and dragging cold air over Europe to the east instead.
Generally, an SSW increases the risk of colder weather and higher pressure around 10-14 days after the event has taken place. Depending on where the high pressure block ends up, it can lead to bouts of prolonged and heavy snowfall.
So unfold your thermals and abandon hope of that diminishing pile of logs in your wood store seeing you through the next few weeks – it seems there may well be a sting in winter’s tail.
Truly, though, late February snow is my favourite type of all. For however heavy it swirls and however many inches thick the drifts form, you can approach it in the knowledge that this is the last winter will throw our way.
That somehow sharpens the splendour of a perfectly iced field and makes the fun of sledging down it all the more riotous. And when the snow finally melts, you can be sure that spring will burst forth.