Northwest continues to dodge polar vortex blast, but a warm winter brings its own challenges

Northwest continues to dodge polar vortex blast, but a warm winter brings its own challenges

PULLMAN, WA – While the polar vortex blasts much of the country with Arctic air and record snowfall, the Pacific Northwest has escaped the worst of it — and it looks like it will continue to do so, according to Nathan Oates, a meteorologist at AgWeatherNet, Washington State University’s statewide agricultural weather network. The polar vortex isn’t a storm that suddenly appears and disappears, Oates said. It’s a large pool of cold, low-pressure …