'Snowvember' Caused by 'Bering Sea Bomb,' Stubborn Jet Stream

"Snowvember" is not so much the creation of a polar vortex, but instead of the "Bering Sea bomb" and a stubborn jet stream that refuses to move, according to weather officials.

Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, told Live Science that most of the United States is facing chilly temperatures because the jet stream is preventing the polar air from returning to the North Pole.

"Not only does the jet stream guide weather systems across the country, it also separates warm air masses in the South from those cold air masses in the North," said Kines. "When the jet stream is north of a particular location, that region usually experiences mild weather because [the jet stream] is kind of blocking the cold air."

Kines said this polar onslaught got its muscle from the Bering Sea Bomb which resulted former Typhoon Nuri colliding with an extra-tropical system in Siberia, creating a record low pressure system in the Pacific Ocean earlier this month. The event actually bent the jet stream, forcing it to drive the polar air deep into the United States.

The result so far has been the coldest November since 1976, with 85 percent of the lower 48 states experience temperatures below freezing, WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue told USA Today on Tuesday. The National Weather Service told the newspaper that every state reported freezing temperatures.

The National Weather Service said lake-effect snow will continue to hammer parts of Great Lakes region along New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin with as much six feet of snow.

In Cleveland, it has been the snowiest early November so far in nearly 20 years, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as the area experience record low temperatures for this time of the year. The newspaper stated that temperatures have rarely fallen under 15 degrees so early.

The Detroit Free Press reported that Motown expected two more inches of snow Wednesday and a low of 11 degrees Tuesday morning tied a previous record for the day from 1880.

"That's pretty impressive to tie a record low that's over 130 years old," National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Considine told the newspaper.

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