Severe cold and snowfall sweep Arab countries.. What is the reason for this?

The effects of the depression known as "Adam" in Lebanon and "Al-Jalmoud" in Jordan are currently continuing, amid unstable weather that includes 7 other Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Syria.

The issue does not stop only in the Arab world. For example, in the United States, several regions suffered from a severe cold wave that sometimes caused cars to freeze, as happened in the state of Michigan.

Although the world continues to warm, and January 2025 was the warmest year on record globally, some regions of the world - contrary to expectations - have seen an exceptional return of extremely cold winters, which scientists attribute to what are called "polar vortexes."

Polar vortices are persistent low-pressure areas that spin like a hurricane above each pole and extend deep into the atmosphere. These vortices cause a large mass of cold, dense air to form beneath them and surround each pole.

In the normal case, these vortices are in the form of a single cohesive cell or dome, and thus the cold air below them is completely confined to the polar circles only.

But sometimes these vortices can weaken, and here they can split into two or more cells, and begin to travel away from the poles, and when they are very weak they can fragment greatly and thus travel south to deeper areas, reaching the depths of countries such as the United States, or even North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Cold future in winter

Researchers believe that starting in November 2024, the Arctic vortex began to behave unusually, starting to break up and causing cold air to rush south.

This change caused an early and rare cold wave in the eastern Mediterranean basin, and led to a sharp drop in temperatures and rainfall in areas such as Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and northern Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, in December 2022, the polar vortex collapsed, resulting in weather patterns that ranged from stable to violent in the Arab world, Europe, and North America. This collapse caused cold air to seep from the polar regions to lower latitudes, resulting in cold air and snowfall in some areas.

(Al Jazeera)