Satellite Images of Polar Lows

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A collection of Polar Lows I’ve found on satellite. I feel like these systems are underrated for how similar some of them can be to warm-core tropical cyclones.

Feel free to add any images you have of them to this post.




February 16, 2022; S of Greenland


February 2, 2023 ~8:49 AM ET; NE of Atlantic Canada


February 2, 2023 ~6:51 PM ET; E of Atlantic Canada


February 3, 2023; At least 3 polar lows along a convergence zone S of Greenland


October 23, 2023; NW of the Kamchatka Peninsula


November 28, 2023; Hudson Bay


December 16, 2023; Sea of Japan




January 9, 2024; Assortment of mesoscale convective circulations and an occluded mid-latitude cyclone just offscreen in the far NW Pacific


January 24, 2024; Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean


(Sometime in the Late 2000s); (Location Unknown)


January 30, 2024; Assortment of mesoscale circulations in the same location as January 9


February 9, 2024; W of Norway

[chaser1]

I do find them very cool to look at but I don't really see much similarity with their warm-core lows cousins.

[WaveBreaking]

I do find them very cool to look at but I don't really see much similarity with their warm-core lows cousins.

What I meant by that is specifically the class of polar lows that mainly get their energy from latent heat release due to mid-level-cold-air-enhanced convection firing over the relatively warm ocean waters, as opposed to the ones that mainly get their energy from baroclinic forcing.

The former class of polar lows can actually have a legit warm core at the lower levels. And these lows also tend to look more like your standard TC with moderate to deep convection and banding features surrounding an eye. There’s a couple examples of that class in the images above.

Source: RAMMB/CIRA

[underthwx]

I do find them very cool to look at but I don't really see much similarity with their warm-core lows cousins.

What I meant by that is specifically the class of polar lows that mainly get their energy from latent heat release due to mid-level-cold-air-enhanced convection firing over the relatively warm ocean waters, as opposed to the ones that mainly get their energy from baroclinic forcing.

The former class of polar lows can actually have a legit warm core at the lower levels. And these lows also tend to look more like your standard TC with moderate to deep convection and banding features surrounding an eye. There’s a couple examples of that class in the images above.
https://i.imgur.com/fJSIkAo.gif
Source: RAMMB/CIRA

To me they look like cyclones. Very interesting.

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November 1, 2024; Trio of Polar Lows near Norway (largest one made landfall a few hours ago)

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November 18, 2024; Sea of Okhotsk

[tolakram]

Greenland Airports youtube channel streams live feeds from multiple airports. When one of these lows moves up the straights the winds are incredible, but something they are used too. Worth a look next time a low gets near.

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November 19, 2024; Off the coast of Norway

[kevin]

The October 2022 Southern Ocean cyclone. With a pressure of <=900.7 mb and estimates of ~899.9 mb, it is the most intense extratropical cyclone on record and possibly the only one to reach <900 mb. The image is about 6 hours before peak intensity. At the time of the photo the central pressure was estimated to be 905 mb by ECMWF. These are all estimates. The lowest recorded sea-level adjusted pressure on the ground was 921.2 mb, measured at Ski Hi, far inland and about 10 hours after peak intensity.

The official ECMWF ERA5 renalaysis shows maximum sustained wind speeds (10-minute sustained winds) of 115 kmh over land. Adjusting this to 1-minute sustained winds results in a peak strength of 131 kmh, 80 mph, 70 kt. Once again, these are estimates. The highest measured 10-minute sustained wind speed is 144.5 kmh, which is 165 kmh, 105 mph, 90 kt when adjusted to 1-minute sustained wind speeds. This measured was made at the Great Wall observation point on Antartica, only 10 meters above the ground. However, it is on one of the islands at the tip of the continent, so it is probably strongly influenced by geography in the local region. The highest wind speed that wasn't on the coast was at Ski Hi, 78 kmh -> 90 kmh 1-minute sustained, 55 mph, 50 kt. However, this is at an altitude of 1395 m, so it's all a bit iffy to get a definitive answer. Either way, these measurements do indicate that the renalaysis intensity is at the very least realistic.

Note: I used a standard conversion factor of 1.14 for 10-minute to 1-minute sustained wind speed. However, if I recall correctly this factor differs depending on the region (over land, over water, near the coast), so the details of the numbers in this post might be slightly off.

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December 11, 2024; Pair of Polar lows (red Ls) strengthening and approaching Norway right after two weaker ones (light blue Xs) that made landfall.

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January 14-15, 2025; Polar Low makes landfall over Svalbard and then reorganizes over the Arctic with a more complex structure containing multiple centers revolving around each other.

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January 19, 2025; Barents Sea

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January 21, 2025; Makes landfall near Shoyna in far Northern Siberia. One of the rare cases where a polar low is visible on geostationary satellites. The low had a hurricane-like structure with an eye feature and spiral convective snowbands. Wind shear and land interaction were seemingly the reasons for its dissipation.

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ECMWF analysis showed the low having near gale-force sustained winds and ~60mph gusts right after it peaked.

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January 23, 2025; Two disorganized vortmaxes with no fronts causing storm-force winds near Greenland and NW of Storm Éowyn.

[doomhaMwx]

Jan 27, 2025: Impressive polar low over the Yellow Sea (possibly had storm-force winds based on radar data). The system eventually made landfall over North Korea and dissipated.

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February 6, 2025; Multi-vortex polar low that made landfall over Nuuk, Greenland.

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February 20-23, 2025; Polar low in the eastern Black Sea that dumped heavy snow (20-40 cm/8-16 in) and brought strong winds (~55kt) to Turkey.

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March 12, 2025; Near Shoyna, Russia. Euro initializes this at 1001 mbar with weak winds and light snow.