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Snow and Ice in the Northern Hemisphere 2011/2012
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03-09-2011 9:48pm#1See how this thread goes. I think it would be a good idea to monitor daily the build up of snow across the Northern Hemisphere from here on.
These charts are updated on a daily basis and can be found here.
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/
Not much to see yet but there should be hopefully very soon as cold air starts to be ejected southward from polar regions particularly over Siberia. We are (very) slightly ahead in snow and ice cover this year on the same time last year.20
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We're quite close to the end of the sea ice melt season
The average date for the sea ice minimum over the last 10 years is the 16th, and over the last 30 years is the 12th, but this can vary from the end of August to the end of September.
Here's a graph I created with my sea ice data from '79 - present
We're second lowest on record currently by about 100,000km2 and are already below the final minimum of every year except 2007 (at least we will be when IJIS site updates later today)
We're also joint lowest on record for ice area according to cryosphere today http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/0 -
Here is a live webcam from Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway.
It is on the largest island of the archipelago.
They are likely to see their first snowfall by next weekend. Nothing as of yet but it's imminent I tells yeh:D The mountains in the distance on the first camera have already got their first coating of snow. In a couple of weeks that inlet will be coated in ice.0 -
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nacho libre wrote: »You don't appreciate it enough:(
I'd take cold crisp days, with pleasant white views, over grey and gloomy conditions everytime.
I totally agree!
Not many people seem to realise that with snowy cold weather we nearly always get Clear , Crisp & bright days too! ... Especially when the snow reflects all the light !
So ye id much rather that than gloomy , rainy days
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I totally agree!
Not many people seem to realise that with snowy cold weather we nearly always get Clear , Crisp & bright days too! ... Especially when the snow reflects all the light !
So ye id much rather that than gloomy , rainy days
Rain and gloom please. I play golf. You can play golf in the rain, you can't play in the snow
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Here is a live webcam from Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway.
(...)
They are likely to see their first snowfall by next weekend. Nothing as of yet but it's imminent I tells yeh:D The mountains in the distance on the first camera have already got their first coating of snow. In a couple of weeks that inlet will be coated in ice.
Well, no snow there as yet, but I just took a peek at their forecasts, and it looks like they could have sleet and maybe even snow by Monday. Certainly they're looking at temperatures below freezing in the next week.
Although we're not going that far north, I and my wife are going on a Norwegian coast cruise next February, so I'll have some personal reports of late-winter snow and ice then. 0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 14686
Well, no snow there as yet, but I just took a peek at their forecasts, and it looks like they could have sleet and maybe even snow by Monday. Certainly they're looking at temperatures below freezing in the next week.
Although we're not going that far north, I and my wife are going on a Norwegian coast cruise next February, so I'll have some personal reports of late-winter snow and ice then.
Watch their forecast here
http://www.yr.no/sted/Norge/Svalbard/Longyearbyen/langtidsvarsel.html
No snow forecast in text of weather.0 -
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Rickylovesuall wrote: »Rain and gloom please. I play golf. You can play golf in the rain, you can't play in the snow
Paint the balls orange and you'll be grand0 -
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Here is a live webcam from Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway.
....
....
They are likely to see their first snowfall by next weekend. Nothing as of yet but it's imminent I tells yeh:D The mountains in the distance on the first camera have already got their first coating of snow. In a couple of weeks that inlet will be coated in ice.Well, no snow there as yet, but I just took a peek at their forecasts, and it looks like they could have sleet and maybe even snow by Monday. Certainly they're looking at temperatures below freezing in the next week.
Although we're not going that far north, I and my wife are going on a Norwegian coast cruise next February, so I'll have some personal reports of late-winter snow and ice then.
I was meant to go in to Longyearbyen in July, bit did not make it in
due to there being to much ice in the inlet. Winds had blown ice around from the east side of the island, causing it to build up at the entrance to Longyearbyen harbor, forcing them to close the harbor. At least it was an experience going through an ice field and if we are to get a polar low coming in from Svalbard this winter at least I know where it came from. 0 -
I was meant to go in to Longyearbyen in July, bit did not make it in due to there being to much ice in the inlet. Winds had blown ice around from the east side of the island, causing it to build up at the entrance to Longyearbyen harbor, forcing them to close the harbor. At least it was an experience going through an ice field and if we are to get a polar low coming in from Svalbard this winter at least I know where it came from.
What was going to be taking you there? It's not exactly Spain, is it?! :P0 -
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What was going to be taking you there? It's not exactly Spain, is it?! :P
I really like the Arctic, I was in Greenland and Iceland before, so really wanted to experience the high Arctic.
The cold and freezing fog off the Spitsbergen coast was something unreal, so bring on a cold winter 0 -
I really like the Arctic, I was in Greenland and Iceland before, so really wanted to experience the high Arctic.
The cold and freezing fog off the Spitsbergen coast was something unreal, so bring on a cold winter
I too would love to go somewhere like this someday, far more than a holiday in Spain I have to say 0 -
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The USCGC Healy Icebreaker has been on a mission around the north Pole over the past month or so, and you can see hourly webcam images from the deck here.
Latest one today, as the ship is around 800 km south of the Pole, north of Canada.
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From Dr Masters blog :Arctic sea ice extent hit its minimum on September 9 this year, falling to its second lowest value since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center . More than one third (35%) of the Arctic sea ice was missing this summer, compared to the 1979 - 2000 average. This is an area about the size of the Mediterranean Sea. The 2011 sea ice minimum was very close to the all-time record low set in 2007; in fact, the University of Bremen rated the 2011 loss the greatest on record. For the fourth consecutive year, and fourth time in recorded history, ice-free navigation was possible in the Arctic along the coast of Canada (the Northwest Passage), and along the coast of Russia (the Northeast Passage.) Mariners have been attempting to sail these waters since 1497.
While the record low sea ice year of 2007 was marked by a very unusual 1-in-20 year combination of weather conditions that favored ice loss (including clearer skies, favorable wind patterns, and warm temperatures), 2011's weather patterns were much closer to average. The fact we pretty much tied the record for most sea ice loss this year despite this rather ordinary weather is a result of the fact that large amounts of thicker, multi-year ice has melted or been flushed out of the Arctic since 2007. As a result of the loss of this old, thick ice, both 2010 and now 2011 set new records for the lowest volume of sea ice in the Arctic, according the University of Washington PIOMAS model. Given the very thin ice now covering most of the Arctic, we can expect truly dramatic sea ice loss the next time 1-in-10 year or 1-in-20 year warmth and sunshine invades the Arctic. We are definitely on pace to see the Arctic virtually sea ice-free in summer by 2030, as predicted by several leading Arctic sea ice scientists. I expect we'll see more than half of the Arctic ice gone and the North Pole liquid instead of solid by the summer of 2020, and probably sooner.
Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent in 2011 (blue line) compared to the record low year of 2007 (dashed green line) and average (thick grey line.) Image credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center .
When was the last time the Arctic was this ice-free?
We can be sure the Northwest Passage was never open for ice-free navigation--particularly ice-free navigation for multiple years in a row--between 1900 and 2000, as we have detailed ice edge records from ships (Walsh and Chapman, 2001). It is very unlikely the Passage was open between 1497 and 1900, since this spanned a cold period in the northern latitudes known as "The Little Ice Age". Ships periodically attempted the Passage and were foiled during this period, and the native Inuit people have no historical tales of the Passage being navigable at any time in the past.
The Northwest passage may have been open multiple years in a row for ice-free navigation at some period during the Medieval Warm Period, between 1000 and 1300 AD. A better candidate was the period 6,000 - 8,500 years ago, when the Earth's orbital variations brought more sunlight to the Arctic in summer than at present. Funder and Kjaer (2007) found extensive systems of wave generated beach ridges along the North Greenland coast that suggested the Arctic Ocean was ice-free in the summer for over 1,000 years during that period. Prior to that, the next likely time was during the last inter-glacial period, 120,000 years ago. Arctic temperatures then were 2 - 3°C higher than present-day temperatures, and sea levels were 4-6 meters higher.
However, it is possible that the recent summer low-ice conditions in the Arctic are unprecedented for the past 800,000 years, according to a 2011 press release by Project CLAMER, a European group dedicated to climate change and European marine ecosystem research. They found that a tiny species of plankton called Neodenticula seminae that went extinct in the North Atlantic 800,000 years ago has become a resident of the Atlantic again, having drifted from the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean thanks to dramatically reduced polar ice. The 1999 discovery represents "the first evidence of a trans-Arctic migration in modern times" related to plankton, according to the UK-based Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, whose researchers warn that "such a geographical shift could transform the biodiversity and functioning of the Arctic and North Atlantic marine ecosystems."
It is possible we'll have a better idea of historical ice-free conditions in the Arctic in the next few years. A new technique that examines organic compounds left behind in Arctic sediments by diatoms that live in sea ice give hope that a detailed record of sea ice extent extending back to the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago may be possible (Belt et al., 2007). The researchers are studying sediments along the Northwest Passage in hopes of being able to determine when the Passage was open during the past 12,000 years.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=19320 -
From newscientist.com - Arctic ice falls to near record low
This mosaic of satellite images over the Arctic Ocean shows ice levels nearing a record low set in 2007. Acquired from the European Space Agency's radar satellite Envisat ASAR, the blue areas represent regions where ice accounts for more than 80 per cent of the sea surface. ASAR captured the high resolution images over the course of three days beginning 9 September. The satellite's radar penetrates the obscuring effects of the Arctic's frequent dark hours and thick cloud cover more>>>
Have a weather station?, why not join the Ireland Weather Network - http://irelandweather.eu/
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No snow in Lappland yet, but has there been an earthquake??!!
http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kamera-C1450801.html
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No snow in Lappland yet, but has there been an earthquake??!!
http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kamera-C1450801.html
Snow covered by next Saturday I'd bet 0 -
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