Overview

2019 North American Polar Vortex refers to the polar vortex that split in January 2019 which caused extreme cold in North America. A polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air that concentrates in a swirling counter-clockwise flow near the north and south poles.

Background

On January 11th, 2019, Popular Science^[2] reported that around January 1st the vortex broke apart into at least two “sister” vortices. "This year," Popular Science reports, "the sudden stratospheric warming happened over Siberia in early December and pushed the polar vortex apart into two pieces--or maybe three." These "sister" vortices traveled south toward the Midwest in the end of January.

Notable Developments

January 31st, 2019, AccuWeather^[3] reported record temperatures across the Midwest (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, many news sites published articles about the polar vortex and the impending cold weather, including The New York Times,^[4] BBC News,^[5] The Chicago Tribune,^[6] CNN,^[7] Fox News^[8], and HuffPost.^[9]

Online Reaction

On January, 28th, 2019 President Donald Trump^[1] tweeted "What the hell is going on with global waming? Please come back fast, we need you!" The tweet gained 50,913 retweets and 200,697 likes in two days (shown below).

Polar Vortex Chan

On January 29th, 2019, Redditor Ppenn777 posted a picture of the polar vortex with the caption "Someone tell the vortex to put a bra on" The post gained 45,200 points (89% upvoted) in one day (shown below).

On January 30th, the post was shared to Twitter using various captions. Twitter user, 27_male_NYC^[15] posted the photo with the caption "fellas ur girl outta town n the polar vortex send u this pic, wyd???" The tweet gained 2,547 retweets 16,472 likes (shown below, left). The same day, Twitter user Innocent Illusion^[16] posted the photo with the caption "Check it out. Mother Nature has a d cup." The tweet gained 39 retweets and 232 likes in a day (shown below, right).

On January 30th, Redditor Nautricity^[18] posted the photo to the Rule34 subreddit with the caption "Can we Lewd The Polar Vortex? Its curvy af, you know what to do Internet." The post gained 1,100 points (96% upvoted). Many people posted photos to Twitter of their own renditions. On January 30th, NaPalm Express^[17] posted to twitter a naked cartoon depiction of the polar vortex with the caption "Hope you lads and lasses are bundled up, forecasters are saying this polar vortex is gonna be dummy t h i c c 🌬️🍆" (shown below). The tweet gained 3,139 retweets and 10,891 likes in a day.

#chiberia

On January 29th, People in Chicago started to use the hashtag #chiberia to post pictures of frozen Chicago to Instagram and Twitter. Nick Olivier^[13] posted photos (shown below, left) and Paul Storms^[14] posted frozen lunch (shown below, right).

Freezing Water

On January 31th, many people in the Midwest took to Twitter to show off how fast water freezes outside. Create & Innovate^[10] posted a video of a bubble freezing that gained 1,700 likes in a day (shown below, top). The same day, SkyNews^[11] posted a video of a girl going outside with wet hair which has gained 800 likes within a day (shown below, bottom).

Search Interest

External References