Stratospheric warming event - forecasting the hype

So, let me tell you, by the end of the next three weeks you'll be so sick of the word stratospheric warming and the polar vortex (yes the real one, not some made up headline).

I've never looked into this part of the atmosphere and it's effect on the surface level patterns, but a mate Tyson got onto it 1-2 weeks ago and it now looks to occur.

Bascially the polar vortex sits over the South and North Poles, and is an area of low pressure in the upper atmosphere. This generally stays over the poles and rotates west to east as normal.

We're currently seeing a sudden warming of the stratosphere which is quite rare in the Southern Hemisphere, with only two occuring in the last two decades (across New Zealand).

What this warming does is disrupt the polar vortex, filtering down into the lower atmosphere, bringing bigger and colder cold outbreaks compared to what's normally seen.

Where this occurs is unsure and it'll take a couple of weeks for the event to take place, hence why I feel the media is going to run with this one and really milk it.

Watch this space!

Rare weather phenomenon possible