Scott Marine Surveyor Blog

What is a polar vortex?

Its been freezing lately, and the question that comes up is why?

Here's an article based on an interview in Vox, explaining some of it.

The vortex is a swirl of cold air that sits over the Arctic region. It's full of swirling eddies that, during winter months, can grow and extend farther south. It represents the boundary of cold, polar air and warmer subtropical temperatures

Polar vortexes are bordered by the "polar front jet stream" that's constantly shifting.

A polar vortex outbreak in farther southern latitudes can have damaging impacts on regions' transportation and agriculture practices, and scientists aren't quite sure how these outbreaks will be influenced by climate change.

Is this storm different from a regular Nor'Easter?

 Not really. What's happening now is just way more intense.

In an interview with Vox, meteorologist Ed Vallee noted this week's storm would be the first Nor'easter of the year and larger—spanning from Maine to Florida—than normal.

The term Nor'easter simply refers to a midlatitude winter storm. Many Nor'easters form when that same polar jet stream collides with warm currents from the Gulf jet stream.

What role does climate change play in all this?

It's well known that climate change can influence weather. The effect is known to exacerbate natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, and warming Arctic regions may even be making U.S. winters colder.

But linking one specific extreme weather event to climate change is tricky.

 Henson notes that these types of multi-latitude storms vary greatly year-to-year, saying, "There are some indications these storms have become stronger and more frequent across the Northern Hemisphere in the last 60 years, but there isn't strong evidence of any major change in impacts along the U.S. East Coast."

"What we simply have here is a strong trough in what we call the atmospheric longwave pattern, or, as some might say, there has been a strong southward excursion of the polar vortex," said Serezze in a recent email to National Geographic.

Simply put: "It is winter. This happens."

THINKING OF A NEW ADDITION?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

If you’re not in a warm climate, and need to get some place a fair distance away, you will be flying. So, whether it’s a vacation, business, personal, or all of the above, here are some tips to stay healthy in the New Year when you fly!

Thanks to  Morning Consult

Flying Tips:

DON’T DRINK THE WATER.

A survey sampling of 327 airplanes found that there was a high amount of E. coli in the on-board drinking water. You really need to bring your own water because even coffee and tea has shown traces of E. coli. For safety reasons, the water on a plane won’t be heated enough to kill off the bacteria. So, buy a bottle of water after you go through security. When you’re on board, only drink bottled water- one for every hour that you fly. This will help you be less hungry and will help you avoid feeling dehydrated when you get off the plane.

AVOID THE SEAT-BACK POCKET.

We’ve all done it- tuck our iPads in the seat-back pocket before we read the Sunday NY Times, or watch a movie. Or, we stick that crossword puzzle in there when we decide to take a nap.

Don’t.

That place is a haven for cold and influenza viruses. The reason: not everyone washes their hands, which is one of the top disease contributors in the entire world.

WIPE DOWN YOUR TRAY TABLE.

Always bring a pack of anti-bacterial wipes. A staphylococcus lives on these things and kills 20,000 Americans every year. Don’t think, “Hey, Susan- it’s not that manly to be carrying around a pack of wipes.” Trust me; I would be more worried about having a clean place to work over anything else.

EAT YOUR OWN FOOD.

FDA inspectors went into the kitchens of planes from major airlines and found the Listeria virus as well as swarms of cockroaches. But, forgetting that, even from a general nutrition perspective, airplane food is not good for you. These types of meals are packed with sodium and loaded with preservatives. When I travel I bring a natural protein bar, raw almonds, raw walnuts and even a piece of food. Avoid fast food when waiting at an airport terminal. What’s good is that a lot of larger airports these days offer a variety of food options.

BRING YOUR OWN BLANKET.

Many airlines won’t even provide blankets anymore, but if they do, use your own! There’s an Aspergillus virus that can cause pneumonia and lives in these blankets. The Wall Street Journal did a study in 2007 that revealed that blankets were only washed once every five to 30 days. How disgusting is that? If you forget a blanket, use your own jacket.

WASH YOUR HANDS.

Avoid airplane bathrooms at all costs. The CDC found that H1N1 and SARS epidemics may have been perpetuated throughout the United States by airplane bathrooms. Here’s why: when you flush the toilet air sprays up particles from urine, to airplane matter, and germs and other viruses. When someone doesn’t wash their hands, all of that material gets spread throughout the plane. If you’re on a longer flight and you can’t avoid the bathroom, close the toilet lid with a paper towel before flushing and then use hand sanitizer to “wash.” That dirty sink water will do you no good either.

Your future has nothing to do with your past,” the great motivator Tony Robbins tells us. That’s true, but only if you’re willing to accept the idea that things can get better.

Ask anyone who dropped 25 pounds and finished their first 10k run. Or the person whose career, company or industry got downsized, who retrained and got a new job, and who is now happier – maybe even making more money than ever before.

The truth is that things can get better, but only if we commit to making changes. Things don’t get better by themselves. As the old saying goes, you can only coast downhill.

If unhappiness motivates you to make a change in your life, it’s been called “divine dissatisfaction.” If you are willing to use that unhappiness as a lever for improvement, amazing things can happen.

Are you willing to work to bring about the change you want to see? If you are, then your future has nothing to do with your past.

 I can’t because I’m … (fill in the blank: too old, too young, too busy, not smart enough, discriminated against, whatever).

When you say these things, you are acting like a con artist. And you are the primary victim of your con. Mostly out of fear, we construct imaginary limitations around ourselves. We use these self-imposed limits to keep us from getting ahead – like an invisible wall blocking our progress.

This invisible wall keeps us from opening that new business, registering for that class, saying yes to that person who wants to date us, hire us, marry us or whatever.

Look in the mirror and paraphrase President Reagan’s famous 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall by telling yourself: “Tear down this wall!”

December 26 is not only a day for Santa Claus to catch his breath but a public holiday known as Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In spite of its peculiar name, Boxing Day has nothing to do with fisticuffs, the trashing of empty boxes left over from Christmas or the return of unwanted presents to department stores. The term is of British origin, and the Oxford English Dictionary traces its earliest print attribution to 1833, four years before Charles Dickens referred to it in “The Pickwick Papers.” The exact roots of the holiday name are unknown, but there are two leading theories, both of which are connected to charity traditionally distributed to lower classes on the day after Christmas.

One idea is that December 26 was the day centuries ago when lords of the manor and aristocrats typically distributed “Christmas boxes” often filled with small gifts, money and leftovers from Christmas dinner to their household servants and employees, who were required to work on December 25, in recognition of good service throughout the year. These boxes were, in essence, holiday bonuses. Another popular theory is that the Boxing Day moniker arose from the alms boxes that were placed in churches during the Advent season for the collection of monetary donations from parishioners. Clergy members distributed the contents of the boxes to the poor on December 26, which is also the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr and a figure known for acts of charity. (Ireland celebrates December 26 as St. Stephen’s Day.)

CANDLE BURNING AT BOTH ENDS THIS CHRISTMAS

Why do so many people get burnt out in the days leading up to Christmas?

Maybe it’s the realization of having to write to everyone you seemingly have ever known. So you sit staring at a pile of countless Christmas cards, that cost a fortune in printing and postage, and realizing that you don’t even have everyone’s addresses, or least not the correct ones. .

Or maybe it’s the present buying, the wrapping, the decorating, the cooking, and everything else. The returns, the fifty different scents in the room at once.

Maybe it’s the expectation of living up to the memories of past Christmas. And maybe just maybe, this is the problem with Christmas for so many people.  For many, the heart has gone out of Christmas, which, as everyone keeps repeating, looks like a shopping fest rather than a holy day. Yet we are seemingly driven to fulfill the requirements because of our beliefs or fantasies about what other people feel or expect.

Normally, if your heart has gone out of a situation, you stop. This way you avoid a burnout

But this is more difficult than it seems when it comes to Christmas. Christmas is all around us and bred inside us, and we don’t believe we can break the rules, change the rules, revise, or give it all up. We might not mind but others will. So we soldier on, push ourselves, and hope we will recover by New Year.

If you are feeling great about Christmas, great!! If not, take a deep breath, exhale. Think about what’s really important, then go ahead and enjoy what you are doing, and do as much as you enjoy even if it looks over the top.

The world won’t fall apart, and yes they probably don’t want that fruit cake anyway. Who knows, you may even find the joy that a festive season is meant to be about.

Merry Christmas!!