Polar and High Mountain Weather: Interactions, Variability, and Forecasting

Dear Colleagues,

Due to global warming and the rise in extreme weather events, polar and high mountain weather is becoming of great interest to the scientific community. Polar weather refers to the meteorological conditions occurring in the polar and subpolar regions in the northern and southern hemispheres, including in the Arctic and Antarctica. Both polar regions experience extreme weather conditions that affect human activities and ecosystems, such as severe snowstorms, equatorward moving freezing air masses, and intense polar low developments, among other severe atmospheric conditions.

Polar regions exhibit natural oscillations such as the Arctic and North Atlantic oscillations in the northern hemisphere and the Antarctic and southern oscillations in the southern hemisphere. These oscillations involve shifts in atmospheric pressure patterns over the polar and mid-latitudes, revealing the interaction between both regions. Moreover, these oscillations present intra- and inter-annual variability that can help in the seasonal predictability of polar and mountain weather.

On the other hand, mountains play an important role in defining and characterizing meteorological conditions with specific weather patterns due to the orographic effect. Mountains enhance extreme weather events such as increasing the precipitation of a passing frontal system, being the origin of sudden runoff increases, and flooding with infrastructure destruction. Additionally, the interaction between polar air masses and high mountains can result in localized extreme weather events, including heavy snowfall, blizzards, and strong winds.

Polar and high mountain environments are prone to rapid weather changes, including the sudden onset of storms and intense snowfall. These changes can make short-term weather forecasting challenging, and mean that there is a requirement for specialized nowcasting techniques that provide real-time updates on rapidly evolving weather conditions. 

An understanding of polar and mountainous weather, improving the forecasting capability in polar and high mountain regions, and the interactions between large-scale weather systems and local topography is needed, as well as enhanced observational networks, improved high-resolution models, and refined data assimilation techniques. These efforts aim to provide more accurate and timely weather forecasts for these unique and challenging environments.

This Special Issue of Atmosphere aims to invite researchers to contribute state-of-the-art manuscripts related to polar and mountain weather, from observed case studies to modeling. In addition, studies focussed on analyzing and predicting changes in atmospheric processes and the ecological and societal impacts due to weather-related phenomena occurring in polar and mountainous regions are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Jorge F. Carrasco
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• reanalysis
• high mountain weather
• polar weather
• extreme weather events
• polar region
• high mountain region
• weather-related impacts
• polar lows
• orographic effect
• weather forecasting
• atmospheric variability