- Forecasters have warned that El Niño is is currently disrupting a high-altitude ring of swirling cold winds spinning above the Arctic called the stratospheric polar vortex.
- A strong polar vortex helps contain very cold winds and conditions within the North Pole, however disruptions can weaken the jet stream, sending freezing Arctic air southward into North America and Europe.
- “A highly unusual disruption of the stratospheric polar vortex is now underway,” the Met Office said. “If it becomes a major Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW), it will be the earliest such event on record.”
- The Met Office added that while Sudden Stratospheric Warmings increase the chances of cold weather, surface-level impacts on the UK remain uncertain.
- It’s long range forecast for November currently reads: “Toward the end of next week we may start to see some colder conditions spread from the north. While the nature of this colder outbreak is very uncertain, it could bring some wintry showers to the northern UK briefly.”
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