Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?

Polar Maritime

Model Forum Host
  • Posts

    14,442
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    10

Posts posted by Polar Maritime

  1. Arctic continued warming in 2013

    Over the past few years, scientists and observers interested in the state of the Arctic Ocean have focused on one detail as a way of understanding how dire the situation had become; the abundance of sea ice.

    Sea ice volume has been the focal point for good reason; the ice has vanished at a startling rate over the past few years, thinning in some areas and melting completely in others.

    In 2013, there was more sea ice in the Arctic than in 2012. It was still the 6th lowest all time abundance of sea ice and of course one year does not make a trend, but the fact that there was more ice has motivated some to suggest that 2013 wasn’t as bad as previous years. This image shows, incredibly, that in fact in 2013 things got even worse in the Arctic despite the extra sea ice.

    When you heat a solid, it will warm up until it reaches its melting temperature. When ice melts, it holds at 0 degrees centigrade until all the ice is consumed. We call this “latent heat†or “heat of fusion†– that heat goes into melting the solid, but the temperature stays constant.

    Heat can either melt a solid like ice or it can turn into increasing temperature. In the Arctic, we’re used to looking at heat melting the ice…but what would it look like if the heat instead warmed up the waters of the Arctic Ocean? This is in fact exactly what happened in 2013; not as much ice melted but temperatures soared in the exposed waters.

    We’re in a truly new era in the Arctic. There is so much open water in the Arctic summer now that the Arctic can warm at the same time as sea ice expands because all the heat is taken up by the newly-exposed ocean.

    Sea ice in many areas of the Arctic melted especially early in 2013; those areas are pretty much all red in this plot. Dark red colors show places where the water temperatures were 5 degrees C or more above their average summer temperatures. Waters in these areas were as much as 3 degrees warmer than those same waters in 2012, the year with the lowest recorded sea ice extent. Only small areas were at lower-than-average temperatures, and those areas didn’t hit nearly the extremes recorded by the high temperatures.

    Scientists from NOAA did a set of calculations to determine the effect of these temperature increases and found that…in fact…there was more heat in the Arctic Ocean in the 2013 summer than the 2012 summer. 

     

    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82591
    http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/

    Despite the one year increase in ice…the Arctic still kept warming, the heat was just stuck in a place that a few years ago was locked under ice and couldn’t warm up.

     

    Posted Image

    • Like 1
  2. Hope people that are travelling up in the Highlands are prepared over the next 48hrs, many of the high routes will be impassable later today. Meaning they could be stuck for some considerable time, with blizzards and heavy snow forecast even down to low levels. With many travelling up there for Christmas not aware of the dangers.

    • Like 4
  3. Sleet here now, plenty of snow showers building to the west which is forecast for the next 2 days. Certainly feels alot cooler out there today, i slept through last night so no idea how strong the wind got..

    Plenty of snow on the moutains on Nevis range, can just make it out now its getting light.

    • Like 1
  4. A blustery morning here with heavy showers rattling through, an interesting 48 hrs coming up with severe gales and poss storm force winds overnight with snow to look forward to tommorow. Off for a drive to Applecross later, should make for an interesing drive ! Theres been more snow overnight on Nevis to..

    Heres a shot of the Caingorms yesterday.. sorry upside down.

    post-12319-0-10284900-1387355676_thumb.j

    • Like 7
  5. A widespread snow storm blanketed a large portion of the Middle East on December 13, including the areas of Egypt, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and other nations. Syria received 13cm while Egypt was blanketed in smaller amounts. Jerusalem received an astounding 50cm, allowing children to build snowmen as emergency personnel scrambled to open roads and attend to those lesser fit to handle the unprecedented snowfall.

    Atmospheric air pressure and temperature measured in at 850 hPa and -3 degrees Celsius, but the cause of the snow can be mainly attributed to "Lake or Sea Effect snow". Winter Storm Alexa swept across the region bringing in remarkably cold air and strong winds originating from the colder winter weather of Asia. As this large pocket of cold air swept across the warm air of the Mediterranean Sea, the existing moisture was evaporated, making the air mass very humid and unstable. As the strong, humid, and unstable winds hit land, they accumulated as a result of "atmospheric friction" due to the presence of land. The humid air, as it was pushed up, underwent rapid cooling and subsequently precipitated by snow. This process was all made possible primarily through a SST (Sea-Surface Temperature) difference of 13 degrees Celsius and hills on the coasts that accelerated uplift.

    Precipitation is very rare across the Middle East, as one might expect. Cairo receives, on average, less than 1 inch of rain per year. Nevertheless, this snowfall produced a massive response on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, ranging from utter shock to delight to satirically mocking the snow as "mystical work" of Egyptian generals.

    Unfortunately, snow was not met with delight by all, and was harmful to many. The unprecedented harsh conditions made the situation far more difficult for thousands of Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon, often in shelters that are exposed to the cold elements. Ben-Gurion Airport was closed, and transportation was stricken down in many regions across the Middle East.

    This rare snowfall is met with mixed reactions, while being an exciting moment for meteorologists worldwide. This certainly did change life for a brief moment in the Middle East.



    http://rgsweather.com/2013/12/14/sea-effect-snow-for-jerusalem-and-the-sphinx/

    http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/rare-snow-egypt-cairo-20131213

    http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-snow-israel-egypt-20131213,0,1691393.story#axzz2nbPiGi64

    http://news.sky.com/story/1182209/egypt-sees-first-snow-storm-in-years

×
×
  • Create New...