It is said that a climactic event is taking place that could trigger another ‘East Beast’ and reach the United Kingdom at the end of the month. Come on, things can’t get much worse.
Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath have found that a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is currently occurring well above the North Pole.
SSW events are some of the most extreme atmospheric phenomena and can observe an increase in the stratospheric polar temperature by up to 50 ° C over a few days. These events can bring very cold weather, which often results in snow storms
The infamous 2018 ‘East Beast’ was brought in by an SSW. It may take a few weeks for the disorder to surface or the process may take only a few days.
The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), involved analyzing 40 observed SSW events.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Richard Hall, said there is a greater chance of extreme cold, and potentially snow, in the next two weeks.
He added: “Although an extreme cold event is not a certainty, about two-thirds of SSWs have a significant impact on the surface climate. At the moment, it is difficult to say whether this event will be a split or displacement event.”
2 days agoDann Mitchell, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Bristol and co-author of the study, added: “The extreme cold climate that these polar vortex disruptions bring is a stark reminder of how suddenly our weather can change.
“Even with climate change warming our planet, these events will still occur, which means that we must be adaptable to an increasingly extreme variation in temperatures.”
The Met Office anticipated that we will experience a period of cooler weather at the end of the month, but believes that temperatures will not be as low as 2018 – specifically the type that brought the Beast from the East.
Met Office spokesman Nicola Maxey said: “You have both events happening at the same time, so they compete against each other in a sense. They are fighting for influence over the UK, we are a very small point in the middle of the ocean.
“The feeling at the moment is that we can see a colder climate from late January to February, but probably the kind of climate we are seeing at the moment, contrary to what is popularly considered a Beast of the East.”