{"id":261597,"date":"2026-01-24T12:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:43:10","slug":"polar-vortex-what-is-the-frigid-arctic-system-hitting-canada-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261597\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar vortex: What is the frigid arctic system hitting Canada? – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Extreme cold winter conditions are expected to trap the majority of the country in a bitter weather phenomenon known as a \u201cpolar vortex\u201d over the coming days.<\/p>\n

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Environment Canada has issued weather<\/a> warnings <\/a>for most of Canada over a \u201chigh or moderate impact level\u201d cold blast that is set to last throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

The daytime average across Toronto<\/a> will be -12.5 C with the wind chill making it feel like -23 C, alongside wind gusts hitting up to 41 km\/h, while temperatures will plunge<\/a> to -40 to -50 across the Prairie provinces and -40 to -48 in northwestern Ontario.<\/p>\n

Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the extent of this system is what has meteorologists paying attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how widespread it is, that\u2019s what makes this rather remarkable, seeing how most of Canada is into this deep freeze,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen this in a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So, what exactly is a polar vortex?<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPolar vortex brings bitter cold temperatures to Toronto area\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. National Weather Service<\/a>, the term polar vortex has only recently been popularized, but has always existed as a severe weather event.<\/p>\n

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The term \u201cvortex\u201d refers to \u201cthe counterclockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Earth\u2019s poles,\u201d the agency says.<\/p>\n

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The National Weather Service also stated that throughout the winter season in the northern hemisphere, \u201cthe polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> in the U.S. states that an arctic polar vortex \u201cis a band of strong westerly winds that form in the stratosphere between about 10 and 30 miles above the North Pole every winter,\u201d which enclose \u201ca large pool of extremely cold air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes this low-pressure system, full of arctic air, can weaken and travel from its usual position,\u201d the NOAA notes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs this system weakens, some of the cold, arctic air can break off and migrate south, bringing plenty of cold air with it. Areas as far south as Florida may experience arctic weather as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, a polar vortex can be identified by weather forecasters \u201cby looking at conditions tens of thousands of feet up in the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farnell said that polar vortexes are becoming \u201cmore common occurrences,\u201d as the country has had its share of deep freezes in this past November<\/a> and in January 2024<\/a> in Alberta.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt seems we are getting more extremes, whether it\u2019s warmth or in this case cold, and that is a byproduct of climate change,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can sometimes see more extremes one way or the other because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For a considerable part of the country, this has been a tough winter already.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, this has been a colder, snowier winter than normal,\u201d Farnell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Maritimes it has been a lot of back-and-forth \u2014 there\u2019s been warmups, rain and then it gets cold. On the west coast, it\u2019s been almost an easier winter; there hasn\u2019t been a flake of snow in Vancouver yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environment Canada says the system will be a \u201cmulti-day event.\u201d<\/p>\n

A winter storm system is set to bring \u201cpotentially catastrophic\u201d ice and snow amounts<\/a> across large swathes of the United States from Friday through Sunday.<\/p>\n

That system is set to clash with the polar vortex currently causing a deep freeze across much of Canada, with significant snowfall for regions including Ontario and Quebec starting Sunday afternoon and into the evening as it moves east.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe arctic air that\u2019s been around will be replaced with more Pacific air,\u201d Farnell said. \u201cThat arctic air will retreat back to the north and reload.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Farnell said that the harshness of this winter season will begin to thaw out after the first week of February, but not for long.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it is unloading the arctic air, and it is going to moderate by early February and we may see another blast later in the month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not out of the woods yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Extreme cold winter conditions are expected to trap the majority of the country in a bitter weather phenomenon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[289,246,7598,61,60,23191,82,767],"class_list":{"0":"post-261597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-extreme-weather","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-polar-vortex","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}