Thursday, December 27th 2012, 6:56 AM EST

After a sprint start in the first half of December, the winter has pulled the handbrake on the Mediterranean even if struck with great intensity in Eastern Europe even on Christmas Day, but will continue as the season when we get into the heat of 'winter, between January and February? It 's still early to say for sure, but what will happen in the coming days on the stratosphere, in Siberia, could be decisive for the fate of the entire season. As we can see from the maps refer to 10 hPa (about 30 km above sea level), it will produce a temperature increase overtime, over 75 ° C in a few days, just over Siberia.
And 'well-known and frequent "Major Midwinter Stratwarming" typical event in the stratosphere winter, but rare in this intensity. Such warming would have important effects on the performance of the polar vortex, with the formation of a powerful Russian-Siberian anticyclone, the famous "Bear" that we always talk so much every year, which would allow a split of the polar vortex with a branch that would be directed on the north / east of the United States and Europe another center / east, just as proposed by all the seasonal forecasts in recent weeks, with a language icy Siberia could pounce on South / East, right between the Balkans and Italy immediately after the Epiphany. With the center / south pole position ...
Comments section below this advert: