On Monday, 26 February 2018 10:12:11 UTC, Janet Winslow wrote:
I'm no meteorologist, but am interested in weather - particularly extremes. I have just read the link below, but have no idea of the article's validity, so I'd like any thoughts.

With all the talk of 'unprecedented polar conditions' leading to this begs the question: is this how other extreme winters were caused, e.g. 1947, 1963 which were presumably much worse than winter 2018 is ever going to be!

Thanks.

Jan


https://robertscribbler.com/2018/02/...e-in-february/

There is a chart here of the temperature north of 80 N: http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/mea...meanT_2018.png You can compare it with last year he http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/mea...meanT_2017.png and see that the current rise is exceptional.

There is a chart here of the temperature in the stratosphere also showing an unusal rise called a SSW (sudden strayospheric warming). http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/

I have been told here that SSWs produce Scandi Highs, anticyclones centred on Scabdanavia. These high pressure phenomena tend to be longlsting and block the flow of low pressure cyclones acrooss the North Atlantic to the UK, and are also called blocking highs.

Scandi highs produce clockwise winds bringing winds from Siberia to the UK and winds from the North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. Continental surfaces become much colder than ocean surfaces in winter, so the north-east winds coming to the UK are much colder than the south west winds travelling to the Arctic.

The 1962 cold weather seems to have coincided with the Russians testing a hydrogen bomb in the Arctic. Could this have also produced a Scandi High?