According to Wikipedia: So take your pick. Winter at the North Pole is: The 13 weeks between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox, or The months of December, January and February, or When the first major cold front hits the North Pole.
Just a very minor correction to that final choice, Fraggle. Cold fronts don't actually "hit" the poles, they form there.
I'm interested in this one. Do cold fronts hit the poles? Or do the the cold winds there just plummet from above? ( adiabatic?)
The latter. Warm air rises from the equatorial regions and migrates toward the polar regions where it decends. That, in turn, creates large cold air masses which, in flowing away from the poles, forms cold fronts. In short, just what I said earlier: cold fronts do not 'hit' the poles - they are formed there.
Do the winds from above hit at a particular time ( winter)? Imagine that a 40 below blast down your igloo chimney.." I think winter's arrived dear!"
What do you think the temperatures of the downward winds would be in Summer and Winter? In Antarctica, I'm thinking -10C to -20C in Summer and -15C to -60C in Winter. Would that be close?
Yes, on average those would be very close.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Often quite a bit warmer in the summer, though.
Climate (North Pole) The North Pole is significantly warmer than the South Pole because it lies at sea level in the middle of an ocean (which acts as a reservoir of heat), rather than at altitude in a continental land mass. Winter (January) temperatures at the North Pole can range from about −43 °C (−45 °F) to −26 °C (−15 °F), perhaps averaging around −34 °C (−30 °F). Summer temperatures (June, July and August) average around the freezing point (0 °C, 32 °F).[29]
Yes, remember that Antartica is a big place and there can be a wide range of temps all across it at any given time. Directly at the South Pole itself? No, never that warm.
In any case, 'winter' is not really a scientific term. They're really cultural terms, just how in Arizona you have "monsoon" not "fall". Since there's no culture at the poles there's really no "winter".
I've not seen anyone claim it's a scientific term. But attempting to label it a cultural term is certainly not appropriate. The word itself, regardless of which language or culture uses it, is instantly recognized as meaning the coldest period of the year. There's enough confusion in the world already, why are you attempting to try and introduce more when it adds nothing of value?
The wind in the polar regions blows sideways across the surface, like everywhere else. There are no mountains at the North Pole, eliminating the most common generationof adiabatic winds - which in any case would seldom be blowing straight down at ground level. A cold front that formed over, say, Greenland, could very well hit the North Pole.
There's no culture at the poles...therefore there's no term for it. Therefore there's no "winter" at the poles. For example, do they have fall at the north pole? It's simply a question that's asked on the premise that there are actually definable seasons, there aren't. If there is no fall or spring...then to answer the question do you say 1/2 of the year?
Of course there's culture at the poles, the North Pole in particular. It arrives there with the scientists and support crews for various research missions. In fact, there are always people stationed there who grasp the concept of winter (coldest period of the calendar year) quite well, thank you. Your attempt to split this unnecessary hair borders on being plain ridiculous. Sorry, but that's the truth. You need to find a different, more sensible topic for discussion.
Okay; in my experience as a meteorological/climatology student the term 'Winter' is not applied academically. Climate is broken into 2 subsections, cultural and scientific. Terms like "winter" are never used scientifically, and the term "winter" is never applied culturally (to polar regions). As well in my required cultural geography classes "winter" does not mean the same thing to all, and there is no definable culture to either region. There's historically been 1 human being born on either continent. They aren't defined to have cultural regions. Take it up with modern academia if you disagree.
