The polar vortex is coming back. After a half-month hiatus, frigid air will again surge across the United States beginning this weekend through next week, as the unusually cold blob of air dips ...

When flow around the wingtips streams out behind the airplane, a vortex is formed. These twisters represent an energy loss and are strong enough to flip airplanes that blunder into them.

Advertisement Advertisement As the National Weather Service explains, the polar vortex is an area of low pressure and cold air that exists over both of Earth’s poles 10 to 30 miles above the ...