~Latest North American Polar Vortex was preceded by a huge North Pacific cyclone, effectively lowering Southwards the jet stream range.
~ Mild winter show of 2023-24 just had a Polar Vortex interruption which should be short lived, because the Northern Hemisphere winter build up is very small.
I think the weather medias are having a better understanding of the Polar Vortex phenom, excellent, but still don't understand how it is created, how it behaves, and especially where the cold air comes from in the first place. Cold air can be created South of the Arctic just as much as in the Arctic. All is required is clear air at night, a low sun during the day and snow on the ground. What makes the vortex apparently move are these 3 factors, it is not created by the Arctic atmosphere. If you know Earth Geodesy, the Arctic is a far smaller region than further South, it can't account for all the cold covering much bigger land areas many times its size. Broadcasted like "Arctic dome, Arctic blast" is misleading. What really happened of late is a huge North Pacific cyclone moved towards Alaska, this squeezed the small vortex buildup further South Eastwards, which onto itself built step by step cooling Southwards (inducing High pressure genesis). This is what most TV weather presenters call the Arctic blast, but this cold is homegrown, literally over your head. The sun altitude below 30 degree elevation at noon is rather weak, so Austin Texas, with current 38 degree sun elevation at noon, is not a bastion of heat, has the sun below 30 degrees elevation for most of the day, but is basically at the last step in this Southward cooling process, until the physical conditions that created this deep freezing disappear, like a nice warm breeze from the Gulf of Mexico. The susceptibility of the smaller Polar Vortex to be morphed, and therefore cause the stepping process has been documented right here on several occasions, when a place like Michigan has had the coldest air of the winter, colder than the Arctic, Siberia etc.
