Climate change is often associated with the Earth getting hotter, but a rise in greenhouse gasses is leading to chillier winters in the U.S. and Europe, according to scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Abnormal warming in the poles creates excess energy that causes the polar vortex phenomenon to weaken and split off into smaller 'sister' vortices that travel outside its typical arctic range, according to a new study in the journal Science.
A split in a polar vortex can give rise to both sudden and delayed effects, much of which involves declining temperatures and extreme winter weather in the U.S. and Northern and Western Europe.
