A ring of wind spinning about 19 miles above the Arctic has started breaking apart weeks earlier than ever recorded - the cold it was holding in place could spill into the US and Europe within weeks

A ring of wind spinning about 19 miles above the Arctic, far higher than any passenger jet flies, has started breaking apart weeks earlier than ever recorded, and forecasters say the cold it was holding in place could spill into the US and Europe within weeks

The Watchers Staff

Every winter, a vast ring of wind forms high above the North Pole. It circles the Arctic about 19 miles up, roughly three times higher than a passenger jet cruises, and it helps keep the coldest air of the season locked over the far north.

This November, that ring has faltered. Its winds slowed almost to a stop and, around November 10, briefly turned around and blew the other way. Nothing like it has been recorded this early in the season.

That ring is the stratospheric polar vortex. It sits in the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere above where most weather happens. Each autumn, as the Arctic falls into months of darkness, the air above it cools sharply and the vortex strengthens, with winds normally blowing west to east at well over 100 mph.

A strong, steady vortex acts like a fence around the Arctic’s coldest air. When the vortex weakens or splits, that fence can buckle, and lobes of frigid air can push south toward North America, Europe or Asia.

In late October, the vortex’s winds were close to normal. Within days, they collapsed. Measured at a standard height and latitude, they dropped from about 50 mph to about 12 mph in just over a week, then fell to zero and reversed.

That reversal is the official marker of a major sudden stratospheric warming, a rapid heating of the air high above the pole. These events usually happen from mid-winter to early spring. Before this year, the earliest on record were in late November, in 1968 and 2025. This one came weeks earlier than any of them.