Publication Date January 6, 2014 | New York Times

Polar Vortex: Temperatures Fall Far, Fast

United States
A gust of snow in Chicago on Monday. Cold weather across the country caused thousands of flight cancellations. Credit Jim Young/Reuters
A gust of snow in Chicago on Monday. Cold weather across the country caused thousands of flight cancellations. Credit Jim Young/Reuters

Meteorologists called it “weather whiplash” — a drop of roughly 50 degrees in a matter of hours that took temperatures from 55 in Central Park on Monday morning to a record low of 5 overnight and an expected high on Tuesday of only 10. The last time temperatures in New York fell that much in such a short time, Warren G. Harding was in the White House...Dr. Overland said the changes to the polar vortex had become more common in the past five years, leading to suggestions by him and others that climate change in general, and the decline in Arctic sea ice in particular, may play a role.