Could the Climate Crisis Be Behind the Coldest U.S. Christmas in Decades?

Ecowatch - This is because the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average over the past 40 years, according to Newsweek. One hypothesis is that, as the Arctic warms, it destabilizes the stratospheric polar vortex that typically keeps the frigid air within a tight ring. “When the circulation around the polar vortex becomes less and less circular in shape, the cold air normally confined to the Arctic can expand southward to the mid-latitudes, including the U.S., Europe and East Asia,” MIT climatologist Judah Cohen told Newsweek. When the polar vortex destabilizes, the polar jet stream tends to destabilize as well, altering weather patterns.