A Jet stream anomaly
caused a deadly cold snap in Europe, described the worst in several decades has
taken nearly 200 lives leaving thousands trapped. Many of the dead from one of the harshest
European winter in decades are homeless. Meanwhile, the same Jet stream anomaly
caused temperatures further north near the Arctic Circle and the US to be much
warmer than normal. Countries from Italy to Ukraine on one hand and on the
other hand, upto to Greece and Turkey on the East struggled to cope with
temperatures that reached record lows in some places.
So why this cold burst in February?
In general, the La Niña causes radical Jetstream
changes and you can click the arrow in the video to watch Accuweather’s
explanation. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) which was strongly positive till mid
January overwhelmed the La Niña’s cooling effect by keeping the winds spinning
fast in the Arctic, not allowing the cold southwards. But for last two weeks,
the AO has flipped to its strongly negative mode as shown below which unleashed
the arctic blast into Europe.
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