Madison Contreras

Writer

Although Oklahoma has always been known to have unpredictable weather, winter moved in across the nation much earlier than expected.

This chilly revelation, including record low temperatures, ice, strong winds and snow, in some cases, was caused by global warming in the Arctic that led to the weakening of one of the two polar vortices called the jet stream.

In detail, the warming of the Arctic is due to the rapid melting of the glacial caps exposing darker oceans that attract more sun and its heat along with it.

The rapid warming, in effect, reduces atmospheric pressures and weakens jet stream winds, which affects much of the globe’s weather patterns.

While the jet stream winds are weakened, they will continue to linger longer than usual as they travel, such as a slow moving river will meander as explained by The Conversation.

Jet stream undulations can create enough wave energy in the atmosphere to travel upward and disrupt the upper of the two vortices, the stratospheric polar vortex.

If this disruption becomes so distorted, it can split into two separate circulations.

These new circulations often travel southward and carry the cold air from the Arctic with them, leaving a warmer climate behind and creating winter in any given season.

A more common name for this occurrence is Arctic Oscillation (AO). 

With a positive and negative phase, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the negative phase is the one at which the jet stream is wavier and the weather is more unpredictable.

Opposing the negative phase from which cold air from the north pole travels from two streams and tends to clash when meeting the contrasting stream, in the positive phase one sufficient stream travels southward to create a circle trail.

Taking notice of the changes occurring, Marlow High School freshman Amy Blevins voiced her opinion on how the weather was suiting her.

“The wind is blowing more often, so it makes it a little colder, and my teacher always tells me the way the Earth sits on the axis during this time period affects the weather, too.” Blevins continued, “I personally like the colder weather because I would rather be cold and have multiple layers on than be hot; but, you have to deal with people being more negative, and I have not been willing to go outside because it has been colder.”

Whether wintry weather becomes the favored season over its warm counterparts, prepare for more cold snaps due to the meandering of the jet stream in the future.