Snow and Ice in the Northern Hemisphere 2013/14

[chubbyfan]

^^ what are the local icelandics making of this potential rare happening ?..

 

should be big news..if the pack ice has not reached the northern tip of Iceland since the 1970s.

 

anyone know how many miles away before the ice reaches..erm..Iceland ?. 

[Yarmy]

^^ what are the local icelandics making of this potential rare happening ?..

 

should be big news..if the pack ice has not reached the northern tip of Iceland since the 1970s.

 

anyone know how many miles away before the ice reaches..erm..Iceland ?. 

 

It's just a quirk really, as the ice cover overall is still pretty low.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Try to remember, that many of these maps show concentration and extent. The extent just means 15% or more sea ice coverage, while concentration has a range of coverage values which you can see on the colour scale. Even if it did reach the Iceland coast on these charts, it would just be bits of floating ice, not an ice bridge as such, and would have no meaningful effect on their weather. The distance between the sea ice and Iceland coast isn't particularly unusual at the moment either.

 

Have a look through the archive images here http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/archive.html

[Gael_Force]

Still a ways to go for an ice bridge and with forecast not likely to make much advance in the next couple of weeks.

 

[summer blizzard]

Did it not happen in 05?

[Geordiesnow]

I don't see huge significance of whether there is an ice bridge or not, although it would suggest more ice from the basin itself has been transported via fram stright. 

 

It is however fairly pleasing too see the Barents and Kara seas doing a bit better this year than the last 2 years where ice growth has been really slow, last year in particular, at the start of January, there was barely any ice in the Barents sea at all and was  way north of Svalbard.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Northern Hemisphere snow cover was the 16th largest (out of 48 years) on record for November. This was the 18th smallest for Eurasia and the 3rd largest for North America.

http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_rankings.php?ui_set=1

 

 

An update on the ice for November can be found on the NSIDC website http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2013/12/slow-growth-on-the-atlantic-side-of-the-arctic-antarctic-ice-extent-remains-high/

 

The latest graph for December looks like this

 

 

 

 

[DR Hosking]

BBC ramping up ice cover

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25383373

[jonboy]

BBC ramping up ice cover

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25383373

 

There is a difference between volume and cover this is about volume at the end of the last melt season which is factual and hardly a ramp

[memories of 63]

Just to put a bit of life back into the thread and to move it up the list

 

 

[Nimbus Nix]

Been rather quiet in here over the last few weeks, and no wonder.

 

Here's the current Eurasian Snowcover - not changing very much recently and certainly not making any meaningful advances westwards:

 

 

 

Overall Arctic sea ice extent has plateaued somewhat and now stands at the grand total of 11,886,041 km² (December 22, 2013):

 

 

And to make things even worse (well, I guess it's debatable), the sea ice to the north-west of Iceland has faded back to the coast of Greenland a little:

 

 

Although a graphic from the Icelandic Met's own website shows the ice being still only 43 nautical miles (≈ 50 miles) from the coast (on 17th December):

 

 

It really seems like the ice is struggling to bridge over into Iceland, then again it hasn't made it across in a fair few years.

 

On the upside, there could be some significant falls of snow over the alps later this week with a small trough digging in to  Western Europe:

 

 

 

So all in all it's not been a great few weeks ice/snow wise, which isn't surprising given the current synoptic situation. Maybe the forecasted strat-warm will give the cold/snow a boost into the New Year...

Edited December 23, 2013 by timeteo9

[Dorsetbred]

Just to put a bit of life back into the thread and to move it up the list

 

 

Europe & Southern Scandinavian, looking rather "green" for New Year's day

[damianslaw]

Certainly been a very poor start to the winter season for snow cover over Europe. Over the last week no European capital has even managed a sub zero max. Moscow has been seeing maxes between 0 and 3 degrees.

 

Meanwhile the great lakes area has been recording very low temps, with places such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Montreal locked in a very bitter cold period all thanks to the position of the PV which has fed down bitter arctic winds to these regions and consequently is fuelling the energy in the atlantic.

[picog]

States doing very well for snow, but look how far away the snow is in Europe! Will it ever reach here I wonder.

[BornFromTheVoid]

December had the 8th largest snow cover on record for the northern hemisphere, with Eurasia at 20th largest and North America at 7th.

http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_rankings.php?ui_set=1#nhland

 

[Dorsetbred]

cursnow_usa.gifcursnow_asiaeurope.gifStates doing very well for snow, but look how far away the snow is in Europe! Will it ever reach here I wonder.

Shows the true lack of winter quite graphically..

[Lynxus]

Shows the true lack of winter quite graphically..

 

Its all bottled up. Ready to pounce.

 

Looks like from Mid month things may take a turn much colder.. 850's showing -10 overthe uk.

[Panayiotis]

Mike Masco â€@MascoFromABC21h

 

Antarctic Sea Ice May Set A Record For Highest Minimum of All time pic.twitter.com/DqMnflJcg6

[mountain shadow]

Mike Masco â€@MascoFromABC21h

 

Antarctic Sea Ice May Set A Record For Highest Minimum of All time pic.twitter.com/DqMnflJcg6

Can't wait to see the global warming spin on this.

[cheese]

At least things have improved elsewhere..

 

[BornFromTheVoid]

Can't wait to see the global warming spin on this.

 

Non needed, the sea ice in Antarctica has been increasing for the last 3 decades.

Several studies suggested increased sea ice could occur and there are many causes/explanations for why it's happening and evidence to support them. It certainly isn't cooling there.

 

Global temperature report for 2013 by UAH.

The warmest areas during the year

were over the North Pacific and the Antarctic, where

temperatures for the year averaged more than 1.4 C (more

than 2.5 degrees Fahenheit) warmer than normal.

 

http://nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2013/december/dec2013GTR.pdf

 

Just remember that there's more to sea ice creation and thickening than temperature alone.

[mountain shadow]

Bring on the maunder minimum. Inuits canoeing up the River Don indeed..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-25824673

[BornFromTheVoid]

The latest monthly snow cover data is in, and January was ranked as the 10th lowest snow cover for the Northern Hemisphere

http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_rankings.php?ui_set=1

 

 

That's the 11th lowest for Eurasia and the 19th lowest for North America.

[Gray-Wolf]

Seeing as even the record high years have still managed to melt out record early this does not bode well for temps across the north come May/June? Should we also see a Nino develop we may well be on track for a record N.Hemisphere year in the making?

[coram]

Could someone post some pictures please.