2013-2014 North American cold wave

By Jessica Lorenzana

What is a polar vortex?

The extreme weather event known as the North American cold wave was caused by what is known as polar vortex

By definition a polar vortex is: a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near one or both of a planet's geographical poles
The sudden shift of the polar vortex caused record low temperatures in North America These temperatures were as low as -6F (21 C)

Precautions taken
Due to the extreme weather: Thousands of flights were canceled Trains were abandoned Power was cut off Governments had decided to take precaution of the situation by closing: Schools Roads

And public offices

Fatalities and damages

The cold wave of 2013 formed December 6th with 11 fatalities The cold wave of 2014 formed from January 2nd to the 11th with 22 fatalities and 5 billion dollars in damages in the US

How is this related to climate change?

Definition: Climate change is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average... Climate change may be limited to a specific region According to this definition the north American cold wave can most definitely be considered a part of climate change The north American cold wave set record low temperatures, but still followed the average weather patterns of its location.

Does this have anything to do with global warming?

There have been many skeptics on whether or not this has anything to do with global warming, as well as whether it disproves global warming or it further proves the effects green house gases Those that disagreed that the cold wave had any relation to global often stated that this event alone did not provide enough evidence and that cold waves were in fact common every 20 or so years

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_vortex http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/0 1/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_North_American_cold _wave#Possible_role_of_anthropogenic_climate_change http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_North_American_cold _wave http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2014/01/does-cold-waveimply-anything-about.html http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/01/07/cli mate-change-cold-snap/4359363/