Looks like a nice healthy Polar Vortex 22nd Dec 13

[Dave Brown]

The Polar Vortex is almost slap bang over the North Pole giving a low pressure over Iceland and sits the jet stream over us. Could this mean a milder winter, or is it still to early to tell ?

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/22 ... verlay=off

The link is to 250hPa (jet stream level) with the Earth tilted to view down onto the North Pole.
Click and drag to move the earth

[stephenprudence]

Depends, usually it will deliver cold zonality which features alternation between cold wintry weather and more seasonal weather. Should the sky clear and winds fall light, frost is more likely to be severe whe. The vortex is over us rather than to the north of us.. However also this means frosts are generally fewer as well.

[Nigel]

The weather this year is very 90,s , lets hope the horror winters are behind us now and its back to mild ones.

[Troppoz]

The Polar Vortex is almost slap bang over the North Pole giving a low pressure over Iceland and sits the jet stream over us. Could this mean a milder winter, or is it still to early to tell ?

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/22 ... verlay=off

The link is to 250hPa (jet stream level) with the Earth tilted to view down onto the North Pole.
Click and drag to move the earth

I see youve been playing with your new toy Dave Literally hours of fun with that website! Its given me such a new insight into our planets atmosphere...

IS there a reason why youve turned the wind speed overlay off?

[Conifers]

IS there a reason why youve turned the wind speed overlay off?

Easy to turn in back on and get the pretty colours back, just cut 'overlay=off' off the end of the url
http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/22 ... ,89.04,378

[Troppoz]

Or...you just click on "wind" in the menu

And its more than "pretty colours", its a visual representation of wind speed; blues and greens are low wind speeds while the reds and purples are high wind speeds. Makes it easier to judge wind speeds at a glance

[Dave Brown]

The Polar Vortex is almost slap bang over the North Pole giving a low pressure over Iceland and sits the jet stream over us. Could this mean a milder winter, or is it still to early to tell ?

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/22 ... verlay=off

The link is to 250hPa (jet stream level) with the Earth tilted to view down onto the North Pole.
Click and drag to move the earth

I see youve been playing with your new toy Dave Literally hours of fun with that website! Its given me such a new insight into our planets atmosphere...

IS there a reason why youve turned the wind speed overlay off?

Yes it's great, thanks for the Christmas present.... had hours of fun with it already

I turned wind speed overlay off on this view as it was clearer to see the vortex in just black and white. The importance is that it is where it is and not sliding down towards UK

[Dave Brown]

Another thing is it does forward projections for 4 days ahead.

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/26 ... verlay=off

I notice the vortex is buckling away from us by Boxing Day and much of the cold looks to be spilling out across Northern Alaska.

[Troppoz]

I turned wind speed overlay off on this view as it was clearer to see the vortex in just black and white.

But I like the pretty colours...

[Tom2006]

So does the Atlantic keep the vortex where it should be or vice versa?

The days are getting longer from today. .....good times!

[Nigel]

Another thing is it does forward projections for 4 days ahead.

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/26 ... verlay=off

I notice the vortex is buckling away from us by Boxing Day and much of the cold looks to be spilling out across Northern Alaska.

thats what i have been worrying about.........stratospheric warming usually means snow for the UK. And cold.

[fern Rob]

Let's make sure we are still prepared for a winter like 2010, we don't want all the plant casualties.

[Tom2006]

Another thing is it does forward projections for 4 days ahead.

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2013/12/26 ... verlay=off

I notice the vortex is buckling away from us by Boxing Day and much of the cold looks to be spilling out across Northern Alaska.

thats what i have been worrying about.........stratospheric warming usually means snow for the UK. And cold.

There are signs of some warming the stratosphere but all this can do is push cold air from the north south. No telling where it will be pushed to, afterall we are a pretty small piece of land.

I keep one eye on the weather forums and the weird cold lovers are desperately trying to find a sign of cold on the way. The best they can do at the moment is the first week of January, which although possible, is highly, highly unlikely and shows how set the current Jet pattern is.

[GREVILLE]

Does the continuing fall in Northern hemisphere sea temperatures through the winter interfere with the vortex? Gain in daylight hours certainly can't intrude on it's behaviour yet. Today, we've only gained one second of daylight over yesterday.

[Tom2006]

Does the continuing fall in Northern hemisphere sea temperatures through the winter interfere with the vortex? Gain in daylight hours certainly can't intrude on it's behaviour yet. Today, we've only gained one second of daylight over yesterday.

I don't think it will. There is a current school of thought that the vortex solidity is due the sea ice and its formation and total coverage....but no one really knows. Over the last few years people have started to monitor sudden Stratospheric warming, which is believed to displace the cold air from the arctic south, but again no one really knows.