Summary

Still watching and waiting for the signs of the next powder day!

Details

Well, it's Tuesday, and this week seems to be going pretty quick! One thing that I noticed as I look through the various data sources available on the internet is that the polar vortex looks substantially different today than it did just two weeks ago. Below is an image I produced two weeks ago, and the current data. 

Souce: earth.nullschool.net

The big differences, in my eyes, are that the polar vortex is much weaker and its accompanying anti-cyclone (the western feature) is much stronger. The anti-cyclone is also called the Polar High. These two features (the Polar Vortex and the Polar High) are in a feedback loop, and exist together due simply to fluid dynamics. The image above is for very high up in the atmosphere, but it's important to remember how interconnected the whole system is. Currently, cold air is diving into the Midwest, and, in the image above, you can see that the winds very high in the atmosphere look to be assisting that. The polar high is also positioned in the vicinity of our ridge. It's neat to see how everything is related!

Below is a vertical cross section of the height anomalies in the polar region. The thing I noticed about our most recent event is how high in the atmosphere the positive height anomaly is present (the vertical orange band). This goes to show that the current disruption of the polar vortex is a bit different than the other times it has been disrupted this winter. 

Source: cpc.ncep.noaa.gov

Anyway, what that all means is that sometimes El Nino can't steal the entire show. There is a lot going on in the atmosphere, and this ridge is an example of the power of the rest of the system. It looks like a storm will slide to our north this weekend, but something may be in the cards for the middle of next week (Feb 19-20?). I will be sure to keep you updated!

Have a great Tuesday, and thank you for your continued readership!