Community Corner

Polar Vortex, Don't Let That North Door Hit You On the Way Out

Life-threatening cold is about to leave Michigan and a January thaw will begin.

Whew.

That Polar Vortex that  briefly brought life-threatening conditions to approximately 240 million people in the United States and southern Canada is leaving.

There are many things that might be said about that, the most printable on family-oriented Patch being this: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Find out what's happening in White Lake-Highlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

AccuWeather said a far-reaching January thaw will begin and temperatures will climb out of the cellar from the Plains to the East Coast.

By the weekend, temperatures over most of the areas affected by the Arctic cold will reach average or above average.

Find out what's happening in White Lake-Highlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The rebound may be a mixed bag, with some pockets of rain, ice and snow, Accuweather says, but accumulations should be small compared with the more than a foot of snow most areas of Southeast Michigan received from Winter Storm Hercules.

The Arctic blast was given extra momentum by a southward shift of a large cold storm that most of the time hangs out near the Arctic Circle, the kind of pattern that is called a Polar Vortex.

Apparently, southeast Michigan’s – and much of the eastern half of the country’s – number was up.

"We were overdue for a large Arctic outbreak of this intensity," AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.

Does that make you feel better?



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