The polar vortex is a phenomenon that normally occurs in the upper atmosphere, above the Arctic or North Pole, characterized by a large mass of cold air that rotates counterclockwise, growing and shrinking as the boreal winter progresses.

In 1985, an extraordinarily cold event occurred in North America, linked to the polar vortex, that lasted from January to April. On that occasion, the polar vortex displaced polar air south into the United States, reaching Arizona, Texas, and northern Florida.

This phenomenon, as last year, has been widely reported in the news this year, 2026.  On that occasion, we wrote an article on the subject, titled What Happened to the Polar Vortex in 2025? SGK-PLANET. (April 2025).

What does science tell us?

Science has established that the polar vortex is affected by sudden stratospheric warming, which causes the vortex’s rotation to reverse, its subsequent breakdown, and finally the dispersion of extremely cold air southward in the first months of the year, sometimes even reaching April.

The intense and unusual winter storms of the recently concluded January 2026, which affected large areas of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and other European countries, are a clear manifestation of climate change and were caused by the intrusion of extremely cold air masses from the Arctic, resulting in enormous snowfalls, freezing rain, and extremely cold temperatures, barely tolerable for the population.

Thus, the breakdown of the polar vortex and the winter storms this year, 2026, have received extensive media coverage due to the vast white landscapes, the confinement of the population to their homes, the scarcity of vehicular traffic on streets and highways, and the height of the snow and ice, which in some areas has reached the height of four- or five-story buildings, as we have seen in the news. These days, a video asked: Can you imagine a snowfall in the Caribbean? Something unusual, though not improbable, and rather a likely reality. It would be the most impressive manifestation of climate change of all time. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.

Conclusions

From all that has been presented, we can conclude that global warming causes cooling in large areas of the Earth. We must reduce fossil fuel emissions, the main cause of the temperature increase. And finally, we must listen to science and to us environmentalists.

Sandor A. Gerendas-Kiss
SGK-PLANET Editor