Have you ever heard of a "Stratospheric Warming event" taking place? If you haven't, one at the North Pole could bring cold and snow to the Utica and Rome region.

WKTV Chief Meteorologist Bill Kardas posted about the event on Facebook:

Honestly, this was the first time I ever heard of this. So, what does this mean for the Utica and Rome area?

First, what does the word even mean? PHYs.org reminds us the stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere from around 10-50km above the earth's surface. That's the layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere where we all live. The warming is not taking place at the surface of the North Pole, but rather 18 miles up in the atmosphere. The stratosphere to be exact.

These sudden stratospheric warming events have a tendency to weaken the polar vortex, that jet stream that propagates around the North Pole. When strong, the polar vortex tends to keep the coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere well to the North with Santa. A weakened polar vortex allows cold air to spill farther south."

NBC DFW reports that by warming the stratosphere above the polar vortex, this could lead to much colder air coming into the United States in the coming weeks. This could also lead to more snow opportunities.

At this point in time, there is no way to predict if we would get a big snow storm, or something super cold. Only time will tell.

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