Siberian Express
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The Siberian Express is an area of very cold air that originates in Siberia. It then moves into Alaska and northern Canada before moving southward into the United States.
In the winter, the cold air that originates in Siberia is one of the routes Arctic air reaches the United States and Canada. The second route is via the eastern Northwest Territories and central Nunavut.
[edit] Meteorology
The Siberian Express appears on North American synoptic charts as an anticyclone over the Alaskan interior or the Yukon Territory. Often the barometric pressure associated with these anticyclones exceeds 1030 millibars and brings about temperatures that often fall below -40 degrees Celsius in both the Yukon and Alaska.
From the Yukon, the cold air would take two different routes: the Rocky Mountains would push the cold air away from British Columbia and into the Prairies and the American Plain States. A second scenario would have Pacific depressions pull the Arctic airmass onto the British Columbia coasts and Washington bringing unseasonal cold and snow to the Pacific Northwest.
The deep valleys of the Yukon and Alaska are ideal for trapping cold air. North America's coldest temperature happened during one of these spells when a temperature of -81 F (-63 C) was recorded at Snag, Yukon.
[edit] See also
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