(ETH) – We could be about to see some wild winter weather that could drag on for weeks as a new report from the Washington Post, is revealing that a dramatic spike in temperatures is taking place at high altitudes above the North Pole, where the air is thin and typically frigid.

This event is known as a sudden stratospheric warming event, and experts are warning that it’s likely to have potentially significant repercussions for winter weather across the Northern Hemisphere for weeks to possibly months. The report went further to warn that this unusually strong event may produce profound influences on the weather in both the United States and Europe, and possibly increasing the potential for paralyzing snowstorms and punishing blasts of Arctic air,

with the odds of the most severe cold outbreaks highest in Northern Europe. The Washington Post stated: “Stratospheric warming events are a known, but not guaranteed, the trigger for knocking the polar vortex off-balance, like flicking a spinning top, forcing it to spin more slowly and erratically.

They are triggered by an upward flow of energy in the form of “large-scale atmospheric waves” from the lower atmosphere, according to Amy Butler, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory.”