{"id":796618,"date":"2026-10-09T03:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796618\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:32:09","slug":"will-el-nino-and-the-polar-vortex-bring-snow-to-the-uk-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796618\/","title":{"rendered":"Will El Ni\u00f1o and the polar vortex bring snow to the UK this winter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Ni\u00f1o – the naturally-occurring climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean – is continuing to grow and by some measures is already the strongest on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The heat released from the warm Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere impacts weather patterns around the globe.<\/p>\n

In autumn it increases the chance of wet and stormy weather in the UK – something that is reflected in the forecasts for this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In late winter, the waves of energy released by El Ni\u00f1o can move upwards through the atmosphere making it more likely that the polar vortex becomes disrupted, increasing the chance of ice and snow. <\/p>\n

However, the links are unclear and the evidence is mixed.<\/p>\n

The so-called Big Freeze of 2009\/2010 was, at the time, the coldest winter in three decades – and coincided with an El Ni\u00f1o.<\/p>\n

However, 2006\/2007 was also an El Ni\u00f1o winter and was unseasonably warm.<\/p>\n

The so-called Beast from the East<\/a> in 2018 actually occurred during a La Ni\u00f1a<\/a> year, effectively the opposite of El Ni\u00f1o.<\/p>\n

So while El Ni\u00f1o is already having big impacts on global weather, and may influence the polar vortex later in winter, snow and ice in the UK is far from guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Current forecasts suggest no significant cold or snow is likely in the near future.<\/p>\n

You can read the latest outlook for the next month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o – the naturally-occurring climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean – is continuing to grow and by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-796618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}