Overview
The 2014 North American Polar Vortex is an extreme weather event that is believed to have originated from a distortion in the large cyclone near the Earth’s north pole, also known as the “polar vortex”, resulting in heavy snowfall and record-breaking declines in temperature across the United States and Canada.
Background
On January 2nd, 2014, the nonprofit weather news site Climate Central[2] published an article about an influx of cold air heading toward the Midwest United States. Estimating a steep decline in temperatures from 20 to 40 degrees below average across, the article attributed the cold wave to a section of the polar vortex that had broken off and drifted south.
Notable Developments
News Media Coverage
In the coming days, many news sites published articles about the polar vortex and the impending cold weather, including The Washington Post,[4] Fox News,[5] Slate,[6] The New York Post,[7] Mashable,[8] Time[9] and The Huffington Post.[10]
Online Reaction
On January 6th, the Internet humor site Heavy[3] published a compilation of notable polar vortex-related image macros and photoshopped pictures (shown below).
On the same day, BuzzFeed[12] highlighted several tweets in which people burned themselves trying to throw boiling water into the air to make snow during the cold snap.
Tried the boiling water trick today… burned the high holy hell out of my hand… I may have done it wrong… but it shore was purdy…
— Tyler Rump (@tyrump) January 7, 2014
My little brother burned himself trying to throw boiling water into the air to make it freeze. BEWARE#lol#caughtonvideo
— Vincent Escudero (@VinceEscudero) January 7, 2014
According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,[13]“polar vortex” mentions peaked at over 77,000 on January 6th.
On January 8th, Redditor rocconyew submitted a post claiming to have discovered a photograph of a woman doing a flip in a bikini while searching for the phrase “polar vortex” (shown below, left) to the /r/funny[1] subreddit. Within 48 hours, the post garnered upwards of 7,700 up votes and 180 comments. On the following day, Redditor koley submitted a Polandball comic titled “The Polar Vortex” to the /r/polandball[11] subreddit, in which an America ball is frozen in a block of ice (shown below, right). In the first 24 hours, the post garnered over 4,100 up votes and 350 comments.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Reddit – I googled pictures of Polar Vortex
[2]Climate Change Central – Artic Outbreak
[3]Heavy – Polar Vortex Memes
[4]Washington Post – An astonishing dangerous cold snap is about to descend on the US
[5]Fox News – Polar Vortex set to bring dangerous record-breaking cold
[6]Slate – Polar Vortex set to strike US
[7]New York Post – Polar vortex to blast frigid air
[8]Mashable – Polar vortex expected
[9]Time – Polar vortex plunges midwest, northeast into record deep freeze
[10]The Huffington Post – US Temperatures expected to break records
[11]Reddit – The Polar Vortex
[12]BuzzFeed – A Whole Bunch Of People Threw Boiling Water In The Air To Watch It Freeze And Burned Themselves
[13]Topsy – polar vortex