Today is 01/22/2026, Post 5

by me, Kerry Burgess, 01/22/2026 6:49 PM

Looking at weather map illustrations of the patterns over North America, I wonder about the effect of the Pacific Ocean

Is the warmer waters of the north Pacific Ocean causing high-pressure to form? Then it's rotation is funneling warmer air over the Artic and forced against Polar Vortex?

I don't understand the correlation of effects at various levels of the atmosphere.

I also don't understand the effect of conditions on the other side of the globe in that northern hemisphere

From my perspective, I see warm air pushed north to the north pole

Another perspective is that the polar vortex is being pushed away, the rotation of the planet is pulling towards the eastern section of the USA. That force of pushing south and east is causing the jet-stream to warp and that warping is causing the ridge that ramps up over the Pacific Ocean, off the Washington State ocean-coastline, the jet-stream then starts pumping warmer air towards the north pole.

I look around for explanations and I often encounter the name of Judah Cohen. I don't read (or understand) the global effects causing these conditions to form

I research this topic because of the calendar-day of the events.

They could be talking about this stuff on the tv-news channel I prefer but right now they are talking about holographic groundhogs.









https://www.ksla.com/2026/01/22/meteorologists-blame-stretched-polar-vortex-moisture-lack-sea-ice-dangerous-winter-blast/

KSLA Channel 12 News Shreveport

Meteorologists blame a stretched polar vortex, moisture, lack of sea ice for dangerous winter blast

By The Associated Press

Published: Jan. 22, 2026 at 5:29 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warm Arctic waters and cold continental land are combining to stretch the dreaded polar vortex in a way that will send much of the United States a devastating dose of winter weather later this week with swaths of painful subzero temperatures, heavy snow and powerline-toppling ice.

Meteorologists said the eastern two-thirds of the nation is threatened with a winter storm that could rival the damage of a major hurricane and has some origins in an Arctic that is warming from climate change. They warn that the frigid weather is likely to stick around through the rest of January and into early February, meaning the snow and ice that accumulates will take a long time to melt.

Forecasts have the storm, expected to hit starting Friday, stretching from New Mexico to New England and across the Deep South. About 230 million people face temperatures of 20 degrees (-7 degrees Celsius) or colder and around 150 million are likely to be hit by snow and ice, with many Americans getting both, according to the National Weather Service.

“I think people are underestimating just how bad it’s going to be,” said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, now a private meteorologist.

The polar vortex, a patch of bitterly cold air that often stays penned up in northern Canada and Alaska, is being elongated by a wave in the upper atmosphere that goes back to a relatively ice-free part of the Arctic and snow-buried Siberia. As the bone-chilling temperatures sweep through the U.S., they’ll meet with moisture from off California and the Gulf of Mexico to set up crippling ice and snow in many areas.

Origins of the system in a warming Arctic

The origins of the system begin in the Arctic, where relatively warmer temperatures add energy to the polar vortex and help push its cold air south.

“The atmosphere is aligned perfectly that the pattern is locked into this warm Arctic, cold continent,” Maue said. ”And it’s not just here for us in North America, but the landmass of Eastern Europe to Siberia is also exceptionally cold. The whole hemisphere has gone into the deep freeze.”

As far back as October 2025, changes in the Arctic and low sea ice were setting up conditions for the kind of stretched polar vortex that brings severe winter weather to the U.S., said winter weather expert Judah Cohen, an MIT research scientist. Heavy Siberian snowfall added to the push-and-pull of weather that warps the shape of the normally mostly circular air pattern. Those conditions “kind of loaded the dice a bit’’ for a stretching of the polar vortex, he said.

Cohen co-authored a July 2025 study that found more stretched polar vortex events linked to severe winter weather bursts in the central and eastern U.S. over the past decade. Cohen said part of the reason is that dramatically low sea ice in the Barents and Kara seas in the Arctic helps set up a pattern of waves that end up causing U.S. cold bursts. A warmer Arctic is causing sea ice in that region to shrink faster than other places, studies have found.

Arctic sea ice is at a record low extent for this time of year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

{from: https://www.ksla.com/2026/01/22/meteorologists-blame-stretched-polar-vortex-moisture-lack-sea-ice-dangerous-winter-blast/}



- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 6:59 PM Pacific-timezone USA Thursday 01/22/2026