‘Sudden Stratospheric Warming Event’ Could Wreak Havoc Across Britain

Forecasters warn a Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) event could collapse a Polar vortex by mid-January across Britain and unleash ice, snow, and freezing temperatures. 

British news channel GB News quoted James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, who said: 

“An SSW event is now looking even more likely to occur this winter, and this could happen as soon as in the next ten days.

“This will mean that the cold air over the Arctic will be given a route to cross our shores, and in addition to above-average snowfall, it could pave the way for another big freeze, leaving the cold snap earlier in December a distant memory.”

If an SSW event does set in, colder weather could hit Britons around the middle of January, he warned.

British Weather Services’ Jim Dale said an SSW event “isn’t something that I will rule out, but at the moment, I am favoring a more mobile weather pattern from the Atlantic, and instead of a big snow event, we may be more likely to see a named storm during the start of 2023.”

“However, that does not mean it is not going to happen, and if it does, it will be more likely to affect northern parts of the country,” Dale added. 

British daily newspaper Cambridge News said the Met Office (United Kingdom’s national weather service) forecasted the possibility of snow into mid-January, while other forecasters reported there’ll be “frequent spells of cold wintry weather” next week.

A two-week outlook forecast via Bloomberg shows temperatures across the UK will begin to slide by next Wednesday and average around 35 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-Janurary. 

Meanwhile, European natural gas recorded the largest monthly declines due to the recent warm spell. Dutch futures are down 45%, the most since records began in 2005. 

Benchmark Dutch Natgas was 12% lower at €75 a megawatt-hour. 

And the good news is that the EU NatGas storage percentage slightly increased in late December as heating demand decreased. 

However, if forecasters are correct about another cold blast, EU NatGas prices could soon see a bottom. 

Here’s what people on the Twittersphere are saying about the possibility of an SSW event:

We currently have a very strong stratospheric polar vortex which has now began descending into the troposphere. Growing signals for a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) moving into January which will disrupt the vortex potentially increasing chance of significantly cold weather. pic.twitter.com/4Phns8GRoo

— British Isles Weather (@nvangelder03) December 30, 2022