Stu Ostro's Meteorology Blog  Polar Vortex, Global Warming, and
Cold Weather  By: stuostro, 11:47 AM GMT on January 10, 2014
Image credit: Skreened  I just searched for "polar vortex" and
got about 17,000,000 results.  Apparently the number doesn't
display when specifying a date range; I wonder how many would
have come up if I had searched a week ago!  And searching for
"polar vortex" "global warming" gives 78,300,000.  Looking at
those topics in relation to the recent cold weather over parts
of the U.S. and Canada from an objective, scientific perspective
...   Image credit: NOAA/CPC    • A polar vortex is not
only not something new or mysterious, it's a standard feature of
the atmosphere, strongest in winter.  The term has been used in
the scientific literature at least back as far as 1939 in a
paper by Rossby. [Update: I don't know if it was in a scientific
journal back this far, but the term was used at least as early
as 1853. (H/T to the commenter below.)]  This meteorological
phenomenon has likely been