The Polar Vortex Is Back, and Alaska Would Like a Word

It's that time of year again, the spot in the Earth's orbit where the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, dropping temperatures and changing wind patterns - in other words, winter. With that, we see the return of our old friend, the polar vortex, a circular pattern of high-altitude winds that can dramatically affect winter weather over much of the United States. You may remember last winter, when the polar vortex dropped much of the central United States into a deep freeze, while simultaneously pulling warm, wet Pacific air up over south-central Alaska, resulting in rain in January.

Now, thanks to the renewed polar vortex, we're looking at the first major winter storm of the season, from Ohio to New England.

Weekend winter storm to hit Northeast Coast amid brutal cold from Polar Vortex, bringing snow for millions https://t.co/cy5c1PNpd3 pic.twitter.com/3pKZ7BUYbF
— New York Post (@nypost) December 12, 2025

The article at the link has this to say:

Millions along the Interstate 95 corridor on the Northeast coast will see their first significant winter storm of the season this weekend, as a fast-moving system takes advantage of freezing temperatures brought by another invasion of the polar vortex.
A widespread 1–3 inches of snow is expected from Indiana through Ohio and into Maryland, Washington, DC, New Jersey, and New York City beginning Saturday and lasting through Sunday morning.
Parts of southern New England as far north as Providence, Rhode Island could see accumulating snow.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, the circulation of the polar vortex will weaken into the weekend, which will allow more cold air to spill into the Midwest and Northeast, priming the pump, so to speak, to turn any moisture that moves across the region into snow.
This comes after record low temperatures were already set on Tuesday in New England.

If you're in the path of this storm, good luck, stay indoors if you can, and stay warm.

Deep Freeze: Most of the US Needs to Prepare Itself As Polar Vortex 2.0 Comes to Town

Now, one would think that Alaskans would look down at this storm and think it's not that much of a much. And, usually, you'd be right. 1-3 inches of snow in the Great Land can go unnoticed, especially in the late winter when we already have snow measured in feet. And we're pretty used to sub-zero temperatures.

But so are plenty of people in the Midwest and in places like upstate New York. I grew up in northeast Iowa, and we, too, frequently had snow measured in feet and temps plunging into the double-digits below zero. But some of the folks on the more southern edge of this year's polar vortex may not be accustomed to this, so a couple of words of advice from an Alaskan:

Dress in layers, and dress for the weather, not for the trip. Many have come to grief thinking they were only going to be in a warm car or truck, and so only wore a light jacket.
When you park your vehicle for the night, if it's outside, raise the windshield wipers off the glass. That prevents ice from forming on them and sticking to the windshield.
If you have a woodstove, that can be great for keeping the house warm, but make sure you have fresh batteries in the CO and smoke detectors, just in case.
If you are, like me, a little long in the tooth, take your time shoveling snow. (I use a tractor, but a lot of people don't have those.) There's no rush; take an even strain, it will get done when it's done, preferably without throwing out your back or prompting a heart attack.
If you have a four-wheel-drive vehicle, remember, on snowy and icy roads, you can get moving faster, but you can't stop any faster.

Here's the best part to keep in mind: A real big winter storm, a real cold-weather sockdolager, where Mother Nature loads up with an icy fist and really lets us have one, well, those give us great things to brag to our grandkids about years later.

So, stay warm! And as an esteemed denizen of cold climates once famously said, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.

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