So what is polar vortex? Until a week back few people would have heard of it. Now, and for days (perhaps years) to come, many people won’t forget the term. The pictures of wintry havoc in the US and Canada strike as much awe as the news that the record-breaking cold saw temperatures drop lower than those recorded on Mars. So much so that in Chicago the polar bear at the Lincoln Park zoo had to be brought inside (even him!).
Niagara freezes [Photo courtesy, Reuters]
Imagine that. And now imagine what it would be like 8800 miles across the Pacific in the country called Australia. It is sizzling in Australia. And in Brazil. While Australia’s north-west coast is fast approaching 50 degrees Celsius on Thursday, the heat index in Brazil is sometimes soaring above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact as The Sunday Morning Herald confirms, 2013 will go down as the year that registered Australia’s hottest day, month, season, 12-month period – and, by December 31, the hottest calendar year.
In both cases it is nature’s fury or wonder that has the people held in awe as they occur at the same time. True, they occur in different hemispheres, but pray ponder aren’t these extreme climatic conditions a bit unnatural? Experts have their own theory but the nature’s wrath in the past 3-4 years in different parts of the world is a matter of concern. Weather scientists are variously talking about global warming as the cause of the climate changes but it appears that studies are not conclusive on that.
In the meantime we will have to learn to live with yet another uncertainty in our lives – that of weather.
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