Snow and Ice in the Northern Hemisphere 2011/2012

Rikand

Sept 4th



A month ago



and now



It's come on nicely in a month, but it's still a good bit behind what it was this time last year.

Spread

Su Campu wrote: »

No snow in Lappland yet, but has there been an earthquake??!!

http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kamera-C1450801.html

These cracks are "frost heave". Would be from earlier thaw outs of the frozen road foundation. Also endemic in this part of the world. Road crews merely pour melted asphalt/tar into the cracks in late Spring.

One thing to consider is the sea surface temperatures, according to this chart, the Arctic ocean appears to be warmer than usual.

This would probably increase the precipitation and increasing the chances of snow coming from the north.

4gun

Irish Steve

Significant change today, American news on Sky this evening reported over a foot of snow in Denver Colorado. I have a friend who used to live in that part of the world, and this would be early for that sort of snowfall in that part of the world, we've visited several times in Autumn, the last time we were there for Halloween, and were outdoors in short sleeve T shirts, so that much snow this early will have got a few people's attention.

Steve

Rikand

Irish Steve wrote: »

Significant change today, American news on Sky this evening reported over a foot of snow in Denver Colorado. I have a friend who used to live in that part of the world, and this would be early for that sort of snowfall in that part of the world, we've visited several times in Autumn, the last time we were there for Halloween, and were outdoors in short sleeve T shirts, so that much snow this early will have got a few people's attention.

Steve

Hearing the same thing from friends of mine in the states. Colorado as you mentioned, they had 88 yesterday and it dropped to 60 today. same thing expected to happen in Texas and right across the rest of the US over the next couple of days they've been telling me

Derfil

I was in Yosemite 3 weeks ago and the Tioga pass was closed with snow. Earliest in years apparently.

nacho libre

I think that was the fairly major system that hit California around the 3 or fourth of October. The snow level was down to 5,000 foot on the Sierra Nevada.We woke up to six inches of snow on the road one morning.

MiNdGaM3

gavkm27

Well it's been chucking it down in Roger's Pass,in the Glacier National Park,British Columbia,Canada,i will be ski touring there after xmas,so keeping an eye on it everyday!:D
http://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/101.html

Irish Steve

Rickylovesuall wrote: »

Hearing the same thing from friends of mine in the states. Colorado as you mentioned, they had 88 yesterday and it dropped to 60 today. same thing expected to happen in Texas and right across the rest of the US over the next couple of days they've been telling me

Health Warning.

All Temperatures here are Farenheit, and the dreaded SNOW word is mentioned

We went over to visit our friend in Denver a few years back, in February, and on the day we arrived, and for the next week, the temps were in the 70's by day. The following weekend, on Saturday at 1400, it was 72 at Denver airport when we collected a friend of ours.

Overnight, it went from 70 to -20, and we woke the following morning to over 18" of snow on the deck, but as there had been so little wind, we had things like the handrails of the stairs from the deck to the lower parking level that despite being nearly 45 degree angle, had a column of snow on it that was near enough 18" tall, very spectacular, especially as we weren't expecting it to be such a dramatic change so quickly.

Didn't cause too many hassles, we had access to a Jeep Cherokee, so in 4WD, we just had to be a little careful on some of the steeper slopes. We were about 30 miles and 2000 Ft above Denver, on the edge of the Rockies, spectacular spot that if I could, I would have moved to in an instant, but that's another story.

To go back to the other story, the East Coast of the US has taken a hammering this weekend, and even for that part of the world, it's early. It's going to be "interesting" to see how much of that sort of weather gets to this side of the pond over the next few months!


Steve

opinion guy

Irish Steve wrote: »

All Temperatures here are Farenheit, and the dreaded SNOW word is mentioned

REPORTED ....for using non SI units........:P






....not really

Harps

Massive increase in both snow and ice over the weekend

TheInquisitor

Now that we are starting to see the cold properly build in the east we should start seeing the models trending cooler over the next couple of weeks.

TheInquisitor

October 31st in 2011, 2010 and 2009 comparison!

2011



2010



2009




2011 seems to have way more snow cover than in 2010. The ice cover seems the same. More in the north in 2011 than in 2010 but less in the south. Overall the same.

2011 vs 2009 is more difficult but i would say that there was maybe 5% less snow and ice in 2011 than in 2009. The recovery and growth this year of ice and snow has been huge though. We were way behind only a few weeks ago. Hopefully this massive expansion will continue!

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

One thing to consider is the sea surface temperatures, according to this chart, the Arctic ocean appears to be warmer than usual.

This would probably increase the precipitation and increasing the chances of snow coming from the north.

I'll repeat this chart and add in the sea ice chart, sea temperatures are still slightly above average so chances are that the ice expansion will be slower than average.

edit: replaced broken image

MiNdGaM3

The IJIS site hasn't updated in a few weeks due to problems with the AMSR-E sensor that has essentially broken down.
You can track the sea ice area here if you like

Harps

Big increases again this week, snow on the edge of Europe now and Scandinavia and eastern Europe look like getting a blast of cold at the end of the week



Massively up on last year

bb1234567

any correlation between snow cover pre winter and the winter itself. like the more or less snow cover in say september = mild/cold winter ?

TheMilkyPirate

bb1234567 wrote: »

any correlation between snow cover pre winter and the winter itself. like the more or less snow cover in say september = mild/cold winter ?

Snow cover in eastern europe is good for us in an easterly setup as there is more cold to tap into once we get the easterly, So yes it helps.

Redsunset

I think this is a gem of a link if your curious about snow cover.
Looking at this time last year we see that snow cover is roughly 10 million sq.Km behind this year.
Simply click on the numbers too to give the snow cover map at said time.
Dates back to 1966 so have fun.

http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_area.php?ui_set=0

Redsunset

Week 45 2010




Week 45 2011





So much more cover further south to our east all because of the blocking high that has helped pour down the cold on its eastern side.

I remember M.T saying that blocking looked to be early this year and i believe he was right however we were simply on the wrong side of it.

Rew

Whistler Backcombe ski resort in Canada opened a week early this week. They have had a few major dumps with another 30cm expected by Wednesday. Alps are still pretty bare.

maquiladora

redsunset wrote: »

Week 45 2010




Week 45 2011





So much more cover further south to our east all because of the blocking high that has helped pour down the cold on its eastern side.

I remember M.T saying that blocking looked to be early this year and i believe he was right however we were simply on the wrong side of it.

That really is a significant difference from last year!
The big question now is what (if any) impact this will have on conditions here later in the season...

NIALL D

maquiladora wrote: »

That really is a significant difference from last year!
The big question now is what (if any) impact this will have on conditions here later in the season...

fact !!

but i presume having alot more of a cold airmass out east (and more futher south than last year) would be better for us if we get a decent easterly ???
like would it increase chances of cold here ??

thetonynator

NIALL D wrote: »

fact !!

but i presume having alot more of a cold airmass out east (and more futher south than last year) would be better for us if we get a decent easterly ???
like would it increase chances of cold here ??

it would but the lack of scandi snow would mean we'd need a raging easterly for about a week before we got anything if one were to occur now.

Su Campu

Second week of January, 1982!

Harps

This is the anomaly chart which I assume shows the snow extent in comparison to the 60-90 average



Much further south than usual but Scandinavia is still doing terribly which is probably of most relevance to us

Redsunset

No harm in posting this view either i suppose.





And as Su has shown Jan 82 was a good un.
I think it needs to fully buffer before it plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afss7QL4wAc

MiNdGaM3

Latest image from CT here