New York City is enduring its most bitter winter in decades due to a peculiar mix of bitter cold and heavy snow, and before then not since horse-drawn carriages traversed its streets during the Gilded Age.
While the winter started unremarkably, a snowstorm on January 25 led to temperatures plummeting through the rest of the month as Arctic air driven by the polar vortex flowed down over the east coast.
The polar vortex is usually kept in check by the jet stream, which is a band of air circulating the globe. However, a weakening or meandering of the jet stream means that the high and low-pressure atmospheric systems that it governs can be extended or stall, leading to prolonged extreme conditions.
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