Reprieve
is on the way from the frigid air and the Polar Vortex that has briefly brought
life-threatening conditions to approximately 240 million people in the United
States and southern Canada this week. Both
will depart during the second half of this week, and a far-reaching January
thaw will begin.
The
coldest part of the air will rotate through and depart Tuesday night into
Wednesday. As this happens, temperatures will climb out of the cellar from west
to east from the Plains to the East Coast.
In some cases, temperatures will hold steady or rise Tuesday night.
Over
much of the Central states, South and Northeast, less wind on Wednesday will
make for less harsh, less dangerous conditions.
By the weekend,
temperatures over most areas affected by the Arctic cold will reach average or
above average levels for the middle of January. Highs
will be in the 60s over much of the interior South with 70-degree readings
returning to areas along the Gulf Coast.
According
to Eliana Dockterman and Bloomberg News, though the coldest spots in Florida’s
citrus groves were close to freezing, crops are suffering little from the
record-setting cold weather.
This
is not to say that no damage occurred, but it is substantially less
than it could have been given the magnitude of the Polar Vortex.
The
Arctic blast was given extra momentum by a southward shift of a large cold
storm that most of the time hangs out near the Arctic Circle. That storm is
called the Polar Vortex. According to
AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson, "We were overdue for
a large Arctic outbreak of this intensity." On average, outbreaks as large and intense as
the one that occurred early this week occur once every 10 years. The last
far-reaching, bitterly cold blasts occurred in the mid-1990s, during February
of 1996 and January of 1994.
By: Alex Sosnowski,
Expert Senior Meteorologist – AccuWeather.com & Eliana Dockterman – Time.com
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