During this week, many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, see Arctic cold air intrusion into lower latitudes.

The current extreme cold weather occurrence is in line with some research that demonstrates how human-caused climate change attributes to winter weather patterns with a warmer-than-normal Arctic and colder-than-normal mid-latitudes.

Experts told Axios that the cold outbreak is tied to the tropospheric polar vortex, as well as perhaps the vortex in the stratosphere.

According to Judah Cohen, a meteorologist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, the cold will happen concurrently with unusually mild conditions in the Arctic, a strong high pressure area, and milder-than-normal air taking over in Alaska.

There are other factors at play here besides the polar vortex, which typically traps the coldest air over the far North. A “blocking pattern” over Greenland and “a spike in Arctic temperatures” are two of the many factors that will allow Arctic air to pour across the U.S.-Canada border, Cohen told Axios in an email.

United States

Most places east of the Rockies will experience frigid temperatures due to a week-long, abnormally cold Arctic outbreak. This may be the coldest air of the season for some places.  Jason Furtado, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, said this event is likely to be more intense than the two previous cold snaps in the U.S. this winter that were linked to polar vortices.

As the cold moves south and east through the end of the week, temperatures in the Upper Midwest and Plains states are predicted to drop to 35 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for mid-February due to the Arctic air.