While this winter has been downright tame across large parts of the eastern U.S., the same cannot be said for much of Western Europe. Right now, an extremely powerful jet stream is helping to spawn one massive North Atlantic storm after another, bringing hurricane force winds to parts of the UK, France, Portugal and Spain this week.

Next week, a severe storm may spin up in the Mediterranean, lashing Italy with rain and wind.

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Numerous weather warnings are in effect for Friday in the UK, France, Portugal and Spain as one particularly significant storm moves through, bringing winds that could gust as high as 80 miles per hour.

The storm will slam the coast of France with high waves, and as soon as it ends, more intense storm systems will form behind it. On Feb. 1, a European satellite measured significant wave heights of about 54 feet, or 16 meters, off the coast of France, which is extraordinary even for the typically stormy winter season in the North Atlantic basin. Individual waves were likely higher than that.

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This train of North Atlantic storms is partly related to the polar vortex in the stratosphere, which is favoring colder, more stormy conditions across the North Atlantic and Western Europe. According to the UK Met Office, the stormy conditions are a change from calmer skies earlier this winter, and Atlantic storms affecting that region are down in number compared to last year.

It's also a product of the jet stream, which is blowing at around 185 miles per hour across the ocean, providing a helpful tailwind to trans-Atlantic flights.

Computer model visualization of jet stream winds on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2016.Credit: earth.nullschool.net

Interestingly, the weather pattern across the North Atlantic is having broader repercussions as well, with a series of freak warmups occurring in the Arctic, largely as a result of heat and moisture transported from the Atlantic side of the typically frozen region.

Sea ice cover has been lagging at record lows for much of the fall and winter, with another extreme warmup predicted next week, when temperatures may hit 50 degrees Fahrenheit above average near the North Pole.

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