The increase in air temperature and precipitation in the Arctic is causing more severe storms and cold snaps

As early as 1973, a study had suggested that an ice-free Arctic Ocean could make the southernmost regions colder.

This model of "hot and cold Arctic climate" (WACC) is sometimes nicknamed "wacc-y" or "wacky" by climatologists.

When unusually warm air enters the area, it melts the ice that covers the waters of the Arctic Ocean.

This ice normally serves as an insulator, stopping the flow of thermal energy from the surface of the water into the atmosphere.

Without the ice in place, the oceans can transfer a huge amount of this energy in the air above.

This in turn increases the temperature of the air and this hot air rises in the upper atmosphere, where it reaches the jet stream.

Jet streams are narrow, fast air currents that carry hot and cold air across the planet, much like the currents of a river.

They travel thousands of kilometers as they crisscross near the tropopause layer of our atmosphere.

Polar jets are the most powerful jet streams, located between 9 and 12 km above sea level at the north and south poles.

In the case of the Arctic polar jet, this fast-moving air band is between cold Arctic air in the north and hot tropical air in the south.

When unequal masses of hot and cold meet, the resulting pressure difference causes the formation of winds.

In winter, the jet stream tends to be at its peak because of the marked temperature contrast between warm air and cold air.

The greater the temperature difference between the arctic and tropical air mass, the stronger the jet stream's winds become.

The Arctic polar jet, which can reach speeds of up to 320 km / h (200 mph), crosses the mid-latitudes north of North America, Europe and the Americas. Asia, as well as their intermediate oceans.

It moves from east to west, although its exact route varies and can be affected by various factors.

With the melting of ice in the Arctic and the introduction of warmer air, the jet stream's path becomes more erratic and more random.

This means that the colder air that it carries from the Arctic can penetrate further south and that the hottest airs of the tropics are transported farther north.

If the meander of the jet stream is distorted south of the United Kingdom, it draws cold air from the Arctic.

Conversely, when it moves north, it sucks warm air from the tropics.