You already know that it gets cold, rainy and snowy in January, so it’s no surprise when your state gets chilly temperatures. But this year, it’s getting colder in many parts of the country thanks to the Polar Vortex! So what’s this Polar Vortex everyone is talking about? Well, it’s a cold front that brings dangerous cold to millions of people from Minneapolis all the way to New York, and is making other parts of the country colder than usual. Meteorologists are saying this may be the coldest January weather in practically a decade, which means you’ll need to take extra precautions to stay warm and sick-free during the polar vortex (especially if you’re in the Plains, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas of the United States). Expect temps to be in the 20s and 30s fahrenheit with strong wind gusts that are super cold. Temperatures across the Midwest and parts of the East Coast will see below average temperatures for this particular time of year. Although it’s overused at times, the term polar vortex is a real thing that simply means waves of cold air. But the main polar vortex is the circulation of air that envelopes an area of low pressure in the upper atmosphere, above regular cruising altitudes for commercial airlines over the Arctic. So when these types of winds start to weaken, pieces of the cortex breaks off and make their way south into parts of the U.S. Europe and Asia. This polar vortex is the result of parts of the Vortex hanging over Siberia last month. Now some of the cold air is hitting Canada and the United States. So make sure you bundle up so that you don’t get sick. And if you happen to get sick, bust out your humidifiers so that you can cut your cold in half!
