Research has found that the ozone levels in the United States are highest in the spring months of April and May and lowest in October. While the total amount of ozone increases moving from the tropics to higher latitudes, the concentrations are greater in high northern latitudes than in high southern latitudes, with spring ozone columns in high northern latitudes occasionally exceeding 600 DU and averaging 450 DU whereas 400 DU consituted a usual maximum in the Antarctic before anthropogenic ozone depletion. This difference occurred naturally because of the weaker polar vortex and stronger Brewer-Dobson circulation in the northern hemisphere owing to that hemisphere’s large mountain ranges and greater contrasts between land and ocean temperatures. The difference between high northern and southern latitudes has been increased since the 1970s due to the ozone hole phenomenon. The highest amounts of ozone are found over the Arctic during the spring months of March and April, but the Antarctic has their lowest amounts of ozone during their summer months of September and October,