[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5907\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EEuropean temperatures likely to fall due to Arctic vortex as US thaws\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This is very likely,\u2019 said Dr Chantal Claud, a climate scientist who works for the EU-funded NACLIM project, which is looking at the relationship between sea ice and weather.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We will come back (to normal winter temperatures),\u2019 said Dr Claud. \u2018It doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s going to be extremely cold.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe US saw freezing temperatures that grounded thousands of flights and forced businesses and schools to close in early January 2014, while Europe experienced an unusually rainy Christmas period characterised by mild temperatures and high winds.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe mild temperatures are likely to be because the cold polar weather shifted over the US and away from Europe, due to an unusual southward movement in the stratospheric vortex. \u003Cspan\u003EThe vortex is a huge swirl of air circulating eastward around the pole. It forms in the higher atmosphere during the polar winter when, in the absence of sunlight, the air cools to very a low temperature.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow the vortex is likely to return to its normal configuration, which is centred over the pole and slightly displaced towards Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGlobal warming\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe unusual positioning of the vortex is an increasingly common phenomenon that scientists say is likely a hallmark of global warming.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It is very likely that this is related (to climate change) but it is always difficult to relate one extreme event to global change,\u2019 said Dr Claud.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018In the last decade, the number of occurrences of such situations has increased dramatically in the stratosphere, and we don\u2019t know why.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Chantal Claud, a climate scientist who works for the EU-funded NACLIM project\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince researchers started observing the stratospheric vortex using satellites just over 30 years ago, they have seen a marked increase in the number of times it has been perturbed. There were five winters where there was an unusual displacement of the vortex between 2000 and 2010. That is more than in the two previous decades combined.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA displacement of the stratospheric vortex helped cause the extreme cold experienced in Europe in February and March 2013.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In the last decade, the number of occurrences of such situations has increased dramatically in the stratosphere, and we don\u2019t know why,\u2019 said Dr Claud.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile scientists don\u2019t yet fully understand the complex relationship between the sea ice, the stratospheric vortex, and the high-speed jet stream air current, they know they are all closely interconnected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We have a partial knowledge, we know that if sea ice is melting, for example, we have energy which is stored by the ocean \u2026 and then released into the atmosphere,\u2019 said Dr Claud, adding that more research was required.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe NACLIM project has already discovered that the Arctic sea ice cover in October can be used to predict the average temperatures over the winter in eastern North America and Europe, due to the energy passing from the ocean into the atmosphere.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If we have a strong sea ice loss over the eastern Arctic \u2026 we can expect colder-than-average conditions over northern Europe and warmer-than-average over southern Europe,\u2019 said Dr Javier Garc\u00eda-Serrano, based at the\u0026nbsp;Pierre\u0026nbsp;and Marie Curie University in Paris, who works on the project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf the displacement of the stratospheric vortex \u2013 and the extreme cold weather it can cause \u2013 are made more likely by a decline in the Arctic sea ice, as researchers suspect, then the situation could get worse.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The extent is reduced but also the depth, we now have thinner sea ice so it\u2019s more vulnerable, it\u2019s easier to melt,\u2019 said Dr Claud. \u2018It\u2019s much easier now to melt the ice than it used to be a few years ago, and I\u2019m not sure that people realise this.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-aqpdyrcjzdgt-ygpzwnvvn-lyxnxlaxrqwgrdsxkz64\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-aQPDYRcjZdGt_YGpZwnVVN_LYxnXlAxrQWgRdSXKz64\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]