| |

Europe prepares for powerful Arctic cold blast – ‘Beast from the East’

ByTeo Blašković
europe-prepares-for-powerful-arctic-cold-blast-beast-from-the-east

Featured image: GFS 850 hPa Temperature Anomaly for February 28, 2018. Credit: GFS, TropicalTidbits.com

A blast of increasingly cold Arctic air, dubbed 'Beast from the East,' is arriving to Europe and is expected to hang over a large part of the continent through February and engulf all of it from March 5 for at least a couple of days. Very cold Arctic air will dip down south more than usual and there is a potential for a historic cold spell so make sure you prepare on time.

This noticeable change in weather is linked to Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) event that took place some 30 km (18.6 miles) above the North Pole last week when the temperature suddenly rose for about 46 °C (83 °F), from -82 °C (-115.6 °F) to about -35 °C (-31 °F). This warming results from a breakdown of the usual high-altitude westerly winds and often leads to a switch in weather over Europe.

Sudden Stratospheric Warming - temperature graph February 2018

The result will be an extended period of cold and dry weather across much of Europe lasting through the rest of February and well into March.

"Just when we had almost given up on the idea of a polar vortex split or breakdown in the stratosphere, it finally happened last week," Dr. Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at The Weather Company, said. "This will be the first period of extended North Atlantic blocking in about five years, so the change should be quite noticeable."

With brief warming periods, very cold temperatures (below normal) will likely last through the rest of March.

Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.

Share:

Published in the last 24 hours

  1. Flying glass cut a teacher in Russia but none of her 44 pupils, because when a meteor flashed across the sky in 2013, she told them to get under their desks Epicenter
  2. A South Dakota man put the widest and heaviest hailstone on US record in his freezer, and a power cut melted part of it before NOAA measured it at 8 inches across and nearly 2 pounds in 2010 Epicenter
  3. Black kites and brown falcons in northern Australia have been seen snatching smoldering sticks from wildfires, flying them into unburned grass and dropping them, starting new fires that send lizards, rodents and insects running straight toward the waiting birds Epicenter
  4. A levee protecting a highway north of San Francisco is pocked with animal burrows and only 3 feet wide in places, and a report warns this winter's El Niño could push water over the top Epicenter

From around the web

Commenting rules and guidelines

We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules.

2 Comments

  1. Could this breakdown of the usual high-altitude westerly winds be due to lack of Aurora… lack of sunspots, CMEs? The massive amounts of energy put into the upper atmosphere from the particle radiation that excites it and make it glow? Must be billions of watts.

Comments are closed.