A new study published Tuesday concluded that last winter’s bitter cold polar vortex was caused by melting Arctic ice, which itself was spurred by climate change.

Researchers said the polar vortex is likely to come back frequently to North America, Europe and Asia as ice continues to shrink in Russia’s seas, the Associated Press reported.

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The study found that the polar vortex usually stays in the Arctic, but can dip down for a number of reasons. One such reason is the additional water available in seas that aren’t covered by ice, causing more energy to get into the jet stream.

The phenomenon was pretty rare up until the 2000s, when similar cold snaps happened after low sea ice levels were observed in Russia’s seas, the researchers wrote in Nature Communications.

In addition to the historical data, researchers ran computer simulations that came to similar conclusions, AP said.

This past winter’s vortex may have been tied to sea ice levels in 2012, when they hit a record low of about 40 percent below the levels of the 1970s.

Researchers and previous studies have also concluded that the polar vortex is likely linked to climate change.