{"id":29328,"date":"2026-01-28T11:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=29328"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:53:10","slug":"polar-vortex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/polar-vortex\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar Vortex"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Polar Vortex Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A severe winter storm impacting the U.S. from Texas to New England recently highlights the dynamic role of the stratospheric polar vortex.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Polar Vortex<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The polar vortex is a l<\/span><b>arge area of low pressure and cold air surrounding <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">both of the <\/span><b>Earth\u2019s poles.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The polar vortex<\/span><b> extends from the tropopause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (the dividing line between the stratosphere and troposphere) <\/span><b>through the stratosphere<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>into the mesosphere <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(above 50 km).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>term \u201cvortex\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">refers to the <\/span><b>counter-clockwise flow of air<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that helps <\/span><b>keep the colder air near the Poles.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These <\/span><b>winds circulate and form a vortex near<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>North and South Poles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the planet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The polar vortex contains <\/span><b>some of the coldest air on Earth.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>strength <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the polar vortex <\/span><b>varies with the season,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but it is <\/span><b>strongest during<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>winter season<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in each hemisphere, when the temperature contrast between the pole and the Equator is greatest.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It may<\/span><b> weaken or disappear entirely during the warmer months<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Many times, during winter in the northern hemisphere,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>polar vortex<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will <\/span><b>expand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>sending cold air southward with the jet stream.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jet streams are relatively narrow bands of strong wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere, typically occurring around 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) in elevation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often <\/span><b>associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not confined to the United States. <\/span><b>Portions of Europe and Asia also experience cold surges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> connected to the polar vortex.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By itself, the <\/span><b>only danger to humans <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the<\/span><b> magnitude of how cold temperatures<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will get when the polar vortex expands, sending Arctic air southward into areas that are not typically that cold.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> Antarctic polar-front jet stream<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is <\/span><b>more uniform and constant than its Arctic counterpart,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because Antarctica is surrounded by ocean rather than a mix of land and water.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Cold-air outbreaks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, however, do occur in the <\/span><b>Southern Hemisphere, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but they are <\/span><b>less frequent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and strike heavily populated areas less frequently.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devdiscourse.com\/article\/science-environment\/3782494-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-the-polar-vortex-a-deep-dive-into-severe-winter-storms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DEVD<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polar Vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth\u2019s poles. Read more about Polar Vortex, Features, Location, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":84563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4983],"class_list":{"0":"post-29328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-polar-vortex","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}