This is the scientific reason Europe is incredibly cold and snowy this week

Remo Casilli/Reuters

• European countries have been gripped with extremely cold weather this week.
• The cause is a blast of frigid air from the northeast.
• It is part of a wider phenomenon linked to weather in the Arctic, which is weirdly warm this year.
• The warmth around the North Pole has allowed Arctic air to surge south, causing freezing temperatures and snow as far south as Rome.

---

Europe is in the grip of a cold snap, which has sent temperatures plunging below their usual late-February levels, and sparked heavy snow showers in unusually southerly spots like Rome.

The frigid temperatures, according to weather scientists, are actually the result of unseasonably warm weather elsewhere, which helped set the conditions for Europe's cold.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: Here's how groundhogs became the animal that predicted the weather

See Also:

• The doomsday seed vault built to store every known crop on the planet is in danger — but it may get a $13 million upgrade
• A tropical island nation is promising to save thousands of turtles and dolphins in exchange for $21 million off its national debt
• Cape Town is fighting its 'Day Zero' water crisis with an album of 2-minute songs to help people take quicker showers

SEE ALSO: Rome, which had only seen snow once in the last 33 years, just got hit with a rare 'Beast from the East' storm — even priests at the Vatican came out to play

from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2sYn2yW