We try to reserve the NESCAC Chill Poll, an occasional rundown of the coldest campuses in the conference, for big-time, below-zero cold, which Bates hasn’t seen the last couple of days.<\/p>\n
But we don’t want to give the cold shoulder to our frozen Midwest neighbors, who are in the grips of historic cold, thanks to the infamous polar vortex. Carleton College in Minnesota, for example, hit 34 degrees below zero on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n
So, simpatico with our neighbors to the west, we ran a NESCAC Chill Poll on Jan. 31, and here are the results: The winner was Hamilton, at\u00a07.2 degrees below zero, followed by Colby (minus 6), Bates (minus 5.3) and Williams (minus 5).<\/p>\n
The infamous Midwest cold is due to the well-reported weakening of the polar vortex, allowing cold air to surge south in various places around the world.<\/p>\n
Just where the cold air busts loose “is a matter of chance,” says Raj Saha ’03, a lecturer in environmental geophysics<\/a> at Bates who is teaching “Climate Change and Modeling” and the “Polar Environment” this semester.<\/p>\n Raj Saha ’03 shows his students this animation, which shows the Arctic air (pink\/purple shading) and winds (white lines) barreling into the Midwest on Jan. 31.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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