United KingdomThe polar vortex collapsed 18 days earlier than any on record.
A breakdown preceded 2018’s Beast from the East cold snap, which killed 10 people in the UK.
Waves from record El Niño can break in the stratosphere and push against the vortex’s flow, Met Office scientist Adam Scaife says.
“I would say the blocking high is probably more important,” said Andrew Charlton-Perez of the University of Reading.
The vortex should strengthen late November, but Scaife warns it could break down again this winter.
How each outlet framed it
- New Scientist
- notes the vortex breakdown is the earliest since 1950s balloon records, beating the old record by 18 days, and links it to El Niño
Sources: New Scientist