How Arctic warming could be the cause of extreme cold-weather events

Sep 8, 2021

The ancient Colosseum is seen during an heavy snowfalls late in the night in Rome

Could we expect more of this? Image: REUTERS/Gabriele Forzano

Judah Cohen

Climate scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Mathew Barlow

Professor of Climate Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Future of the Environment

Surface temperatures on Feb. 15, 2021, at 6 a.m. in Texas. The black lines show the jet stream, and the white line indicates the extent of freezing temperatures. Image: Mathew Barlow/University of Massachusetts Lowel

Have you read?

Two circulation patterns of the stratospheric polar vortex: strong (left) and stretched (right). Image: Mathew Barlow, University of Massachusetts Lowell

A schematic shows wave activity reflecting off the stretched stratospheric polar vortex. Image: Mathew Barlow, University of Massachusetts Lowell

A timeline shows the pathway from Arctic climate change to cold temperatures in North America. Red and blue in the third panel indicate differences from average conditions. Image: Mathew Barlow/University of Massachusetts Lowell

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.