Blame a wobbly polar vortex for why you’re so damn cold

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It’s coming.

The polar vortex — a spinning mass of winter-chilled Arctic air — has become wobbly and weak. It’s expected to slosh down and blanket a considerable part of the East Coast and Midwest with frigid polar air beginning this weekend, bringing sub zero temperatures to some Midwestern places.

“We’re gonna freeze,” John Martin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview. 

The polar vortex typically lives in the high Arctic each winter. So why does this mass of frigid air sometimes swirl so far down south and away from its home?

Here is my “official” 3D animation of this year’s stratospheric #PolarVortex split. Another beautiful event! pic.twitter.com/ml59N1cDoh

— Zac Lawrence (@zd1awrence) January 14, 2019 Read more…

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