Video taking off 28x its usual first day

Minnesota's winter outlook looks beyond El Niño to the polar vortex

FOX 9's Cody Matz and climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld connect extraordinary rainfall with the atmospheric changes that could influence cold and snow.

Channel:

FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul Story of November 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 79,084 views a day, 28 times a normal first day on this channel (2,872).

How El Niño and the polar vortex could shape this winter

Things we can learn from the video

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1:14Blumenfeld links warming in the tropical Pacific to exceptional atmospheric moisture.
2:05Minnesota's recent rainfall may represent its wettest November storm, Blumenfeld says.
8:21An atmospheric animation traces moisture flowing across the equator and into the central United States.
10:37A diagram distinguishes the stratospheric polar vortex from its lower-atmosphere counterpart.
14:17The winter outlook turns to sudden stratospheric warming and its possible effects on cold and snowfall.

"This looks like the wettest November storm Minnesota has ever recorded," Kenny Blumenfeld tells FOX 9 meteorologist Cody Matz. It's a striking starting point for a winter discussion that reaches from the tropical Pacific to the atmosphere high above the Arctic.

Blumenfeld, a senior climatologist at Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources, links powerful El Niño conditions to exceptional atmospheric moisture. He and Matz compare the recent rainstorm's moisture footprint with the historic Halloween Blizzard, a reminder that a huge precipitation event doesn't necessarily arrive as snow.

Their interview, "How El Niño and the polar vortex could shape this winter," drew about 57,000 views in its first 13 hours, already far beyond the few thousand typical of the station's regular uploads on their first day.

The winter-outlook part comes later. Using a diagram, Blumenfeld distinguishes the polar vortex in the stratosphere from its lower-atmosphere counterpart. The discussion then turns to sudden stratospheric warming, which can disrupt the vortex and influence patterns of cold and snowfall across North America and Europe. Matz says such a warming event is happening now.

This isn't a snowfall total or a date for the next cold snap. It's an explanation of why El Niño alone doesn't settle Minnesota's winter prospects, a point Matz also explores in the station's separate upload, "El Niño may not prevent a cold, snowy Minnesota winter."

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