What is a polar vortex? Weather forecast UK 2023

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Forecasters have warned a “polar vortex” – the phenomenon that helped to cause the “Beast From the East” winter storm of 2018 – could hit Britain in February. Although we saw a period of bitter cold bring sub-zero temperatures to the British Isles just last month, the last really significant winter cold wave to hit the country was the aforementioned “Beast From the East”, more formally known as Anticyclone Hartmut. Formed by a disordered polar vortex breaking out of the Arctic into Central Europe, it was formed on 22 February 2018, made landfall in the UK on 2 March and finally dissipated on 5 March. The “Beast” brought heavy snowfall and ice and bitter winds in from Siberia, causing at least 17 people to lose their lives in Britain alone, with 95 fatalities recorded in total across Europe.