Snow & Ice coverage in the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2019/20

[Katrine Basso]

I don't know if is a good sign for the spread of snow in Scandinavia and Russia.

[Winter wonder]

Well it’s better than no snow in Scandinavia and Russia .

[Beanz]

4 hours ago, Katrine Basso said:

I don't know if is a good sign for the spread of snow in Scandinavia and Russia.

How so? 

[Norrance]

One from a couple of pictures posted in the North America thread from Harvey, North Dakota  today.

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by Norrance

[Aleman]

Harvey's snow total is reported as 30 inches.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/incoming/4719398-West-of-Grand-Forks-storms-effects-Kind-of-scary

 

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

 

[Turnedoutniceagain]

Whooaa, haven't checked for a few days - look at Scandinavia !!

 

[Bobafet]

@Kirkcaldy Weatherloving the tweets you keep on sharing on this thread! Keep them coming please!

[Don]

33 minutes ago, Turnedoutniceagain said:

Whooaa, haven't checked for a few days - look at Scandinavia !!

 

The Russian snow has melted away, though.

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

 

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

 

[Ice Day]

Impressive increase in snow cover in north western Canada.  Sea ice noticeably expanding also.  

Yesterday vs today

   

Compared to 15th October from last year, I'd say sea ice is down a little this year, but snow cover is probably up!?

[Blessed Weather]

Judah Cohen:

"October Siberian snow cover extent went from near the top to near the bottom over the past week now only ahead of 2011 and last October for the date. Looks like the end of the month will be important, if for nothing else, for the winter forecast!"

Source: Twitter @judah47.

[Yarmy]

5 minutes ago, Blessed Weather said:

Judah Cohen:

"October Siberian snow cover extent went from near the top to near the bottom over the past week now only ahead of 2011 and last October for the date. Looks like the end of the month will be important, if for nothing else, for the winter forecast!"

Source: Twitter @judah47.

He needs to sort that chart legend out. If anyone can resolve the colour differences between the years 2010 through 2013 they've got better eyesight than me.

[Aleman]

N.H. snow extent has dropped back to average. Snow water equivalent is about 30% above average, though, so it must be thick somewhere.

GCW Trackers

GLOBALCRYOSPHEREWATCH.ORG

As an aside, is anyone watching the Antarctic? The Antarctic sea ice extent graph in the same link was above average and slowly increasing for many years then dropped quite suddenly about three years ago and has run below average for a while but this year has  recovered strongly, nearly back to normal again. I know it's been pretty cold in the Antarctic this year and especially through much of our summer. I thought I might just highlight it and see if anyone has any comments about the drop and rise again. I presume we're okay to go off topic for a wee while as it's obviously closely related.

 

Edited October 17, 2019 by Aleman

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

GISMETEO.COM: Half of Russia is covered in snow - 17 october 2019 | Climate | Новости погоды.

WWW.GISMETEO.COM

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The deepest snowdrifts (up to half a meter deep) are observed in the Magadan region and Yakutia.

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Kirkcaldy Weather

[Midlands Ice Age]

Large increase in snow seen today in Asia and particularly Northern Russia.

Also the sea ice extending out from the shoreline has jumped today.

Continued similar weather conditions could well see a flash sea ice freeze in the next few days, as there are patches of ice now showing at sea in both  Laptev and in the west area of the ESS.

 

 

[Don]

45 minutes ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

Large increase in snow seen today in Asia and particularly Northern Russia.

Also the sea ice extending out from the shoreline has jumped today.

Continued similar weather conditions could well see a flash sea ice freeze in the next few days, as there are patches of ice now showing at sea in both  Laptev and in the west area of the ESS.

 

 

Better

[Seasonality]

On 19/10/2019 at 23:10, Kirkcaldy Weather said:

GISMETEO.COM: Half of Russia is covered in snow - 17 october 2019 | Climate | Новости погоды.

WWW.GISMETEO.COM

---

The deepest snowdrifts (up to half a meter deep) are observed in the Magadan region and Yakutia.

 

This pleases me immensely. Will give my northerlies some added bite!

Edited October 21, 2019 by Seasonality

[karyo]

21 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

Large increase in snow seen today in Asia and particularly Northern Russia.

Also the sea ice extending out from the shoreline has jumped today.

Continued similar weather conditions could well see a flash sea ice freeze in the next few days, as there are patches of ice now showing at sea in both  Laptev and in the west area of the ESS.

 

 

The Arctic ice of course is increasing but is at record low! 

 

Charctic Interactive Sea Ice Graph | Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis

NSIDC.ORG

 

[Katrine Basso]

Here is the latest snow and ice chart:

[Midlands Ice Age]

22 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

 

Also the sea ice extending out from the shoreline has jumped today.

Continued similar weather conditions could well see a flash sea ice freeze in the next few days, as there are patches of ice now showing at sea in both  Laptev and in the west area of the ESS.

 

 

Karyo - Yep I am well aware - that is part of the reason that I think a flash freeze will occur.

I have shown the figures for today below, in order to compare todays with yesterdays above - it looks as though the 'flash freeze' has started. My guess is that about 40K has been added  in Laptev and the ESS today and it is now primed for further increases (conditions not changing up there?)

Last year the Laptev froze very quickly over the last few days. I can see it happening again this year.   (although a bit later I agree).

Also note the further filling in of the snow in Russia. Thanks Katrine

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by Midlands Ice Age

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

 

[Midlands Ice Age]

9 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

Karyo - Yep I am well aware - that is part of the reason that I think a flash freeze will occur.

I have shown the figures for today below, in order to compare todays with yesterdays above - it looks as though the 'flash freeze' has started. My guess is that about 40K has been added  in Laptev and the ESS today and it is now primed for further increases (conditions not changing up there?)

Last year the Laptev froze very quickly over the last few days. I can see it happening again this year.   (although a bit later I agree).

Also note the further filling in of the snow in Russia. Thanks Katrine

 

Further to the above, I have checked on todays Masie.

Seems like my guess of  a 40K increase was vastly underestimated.

Today the following were 'recorded' - Laptev  105K increase,   ESS  30K increase. (I am a bit suspicious of the Laptev result!!).

So it looks as though I vastly underestimated the onset (I suggested a few days), and also the impact (I suggested 40K between Laptev and the ESS). Never was much good at estimating!!!

Anyway, todays Masie also shows  - (see below)

1) The coastal ice has now stretched into Kara and has now pushed through the J.M. islands into the Kara area.  Kara now primed for quick growth?

Coastal ice has virtually now circled the North of Russia from Kara thru Laptev to the ESS, (though not yet showing into the Baring side of the ESS).

2)  Svalbard has now been encircled in the NE quadrant and has resulted in the Barents sea exceeding growth for the last few years. This is now quicker than the last 5 years.

3) The ice is now ready to play 'pickup' in the Beaufort Sea. The ice has started to form on the coast and there are now coastal ice patches beyond Barrow and into the Baring Strait, The main ice pack is now throwing out 'fingers' towards these patches.

So, yes, the ice refreeze has got of to a slow start, but there are signs (such as the fact that Masie has recorded 4 days of more than 150K), that a quicker refreeze is about to start up  now.

I also checked and currently the ice re-growth  is about 4 days behind 2018 and 2016, but 12 days behind 2017, and about the same behind this decades averages.

 

https://nsidc.org/data/masie/masie_plots

 

and 

 

https://nsidc.org/data/masie

 

Use the above,  and the daily extent datasets can be downloaded into a csv file otherwise the Time Series plots can give the last 2 months ..

MIA

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by Midlands Ice Age

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Large parts of Russia and Scandinavia have been ‘cold’ this year, the snow will increase rapidly, the continents are cooling rapidly, sea ice melt is part of the cyclic warm pulses of currents into the arctic.  I anticipate large and quick snow gains and ice expansion.  Indeed the snow over is rapidly increasing, and models predicting large scale cold uppers for NH

 

BFTP