Kind: captions
Language: en
this is Antarctica it is so cold that my
snot froze I
just got home to the states and it's
actually colder here than it was there
and I'm not even in Chicago the coldest
air in decades whiteout conditions 20 to
40 degrees lower than normal so what on
earth is going on I mean like literally
what the heck is our planet up to if the
plan is supposed to be warming why is it
so cold polar vortex deadly polar vortex
polar vortex as polar vortex has
dominated the news headlines for the
last week but there's a lot of confusion
about what it actually is
two atmospheric scientists the polar
vortex refers to these high-altitude
stratospheric winds that are spinning
really fast up near the North Pole they
trap a pool of super cold air over the
Arctic sometimes it splits in two and
that forces colder air south
but this polar vortex has become well
polarizing
[Music]
it's counterintuitive if our planet is
warming then why is it so cold outside
the trend even this year with our cold
this year this winter is still among the
warmest ever it's not negating global
warming there are really only two areas
on the whole globe that are colder than
normal right now everywhere else for the
most part is warmer than normal just
because of particular weather event
books the trend doesn't mean that the
planet on average isn't warming as a
whole and in fact some scientists are
starting to argue that this Polar Plunge
is caused by climate change here's the
thing as the planet warms the poles are
warming a lot faster than the
mid-latitudes so places like the u.s.
so the difference in temperature or
gradient between the North Pole and say
the Midwest is much less extreme than it
used to be that causes the polar vortex
to weaken and this makes our jet stream
which is at a lower altitude than the
polar vortex weaker and wavier and that
drives our weather in the United States
but this is still a hotly debated
hypothesis I think that the jump between
saying that by slackening that
temperature contrast from the mid
latitudes to the pole that doesn't
necessarily mean the jet stream is going
to become wavier it's certainly played
out this year just like the hypothesis
says and last year - it looks like it's
global warming but I don't think anyone
yet has enough data to nail that to the
ground one thing is clear there's
something divot community degrees that
despite the Antarctic temperatures in
the Midwest this week the globe on
average is still warming but if you are
in one of those places that's
experiencing record cold try to stay
warm and check out some of the links in
the description for more on the science
of the Arctic vortex and how to survive
the Antarctic gold
you