Snow & Ice coverage in the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2020/21

[Midlands Ice Age]

Todays Masie update...

Snow cover about the same in the US and Canada, but slightly expanded south westwards again in Russia,

Sea Ice had a moderate increase of +44K Km2 - now standing at 6127K Km2 and still last in the Masie history record. 

Beaufort is increasing again now (+14K), and Chukchi consolidated after yesterday's growth (+5K). Of note is that Baring recorded its first ice (+1K), though I am not certain which side has qualified as both sides are now showing coastal ice to a long way south - including to the south west of Barrow.

ESS drew a blank yesterday   (0K) , though to the naked eye it has expanded, and Laptev definitely grew out towards the Ostrova group of Islands (+23K) which are already surrounded by home grown ice.

Kara expanded around both sides of the Severna Novaya Islands and the Ice pack now surrounds three quarters of the coast.

Jan Mayen changed little, but suddenly Svalbard is showing home grown ice in most prone areas. 

Barents was however little changed at (+0).  Central lost (-9K), and Greenland lost -16K as more southerly winds set in, at that corner southerly corner of the ice pack.

N.A. generally increased through Baffin(+20K), Hudson(+1K) and CAA (+13K). 

MIA

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age

[Turnedoutniceagain]

Struggling to think if I've ever seen snow on the Mexican border before?

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

3 hours ago, Turnedoutniceagain said:

Struggling to think if I've ever seen snow on the Mexican border before?

 

Especially this early!  The cold waves are quite something over there, cold records getting obliterated.  Some incredible ice storm pics in Oklahoma floating around.

 

BFTP

[BornFromTheVoid]

While the snow is doing great, the ice extent is now lowest on record by over 1 million km2

[cheeky_monkey]

4 hours ago, BLAST FROM THE PAST said:

Especially this early!  The cold waves are quite something over there, cold records getting obliterated.  Some incredible ice storm pics in Oklahoma floating around.

 

BFTP

some strange weather going on in NA right now..we didnt just break cold records a few days ago some were obliterated as you say by over 10c conversely we may break some warm weather records on sunday/monday with temps going up to close to 25c in some parts of Alberta..when it was close to -30c this sunday/monday just gone

Edited October 28, 2020 by cheeky_monkey

[sundog]

2 hours ago, BornFromTheVoid said:

While the snow is doing great, the ice extent is now lowest on record by over 1 million km2

When was the last lowest amount of sea ice recorded for the end of Oct?

How many square km less ice is there for the end of Oct this yr compared to the 80s?

[BornFromTheVoid]

1 minute ago, sundog said:

When was the last lowest amount of sea ice recorded for the end of Oct?

How many square km less ice is there for the end of Oct this yr compared to the 80s?

Here's the 5 lowest for October 27th

2020 - 6.017 (million km2)
2019 - 7.029
2016-  7.068
2012-  7.443
2007- 7.642

Currently, it's 3.750 million km2 below the 1980s average.
 

[sundog]

6 minutes ago, BornFromTheVoid said:

Here's the 5 lowest for October 27th

2020 - 6.017 (million km2)
2019 - 7.029
2016-  7.068
2012-  7.443
2007- 7.642

Currently, it's 3.750 million km2 below the 1980s average.
 

Thank you. Comparing to the 80s it really puts it into perspective all the more. 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

some strange weather going on in NA right now..we didnt just break cold records a few days ago some were obliterated as you say by over 10c conversely we may break some warm weather records on sunday/monday with temps going up to close to 25c in some parts of Alberta..when it was close to -30c this sunday/monday just gone

Classic LIA footprint imo, the wild Extreme swings are incredible and that warmth will switch to another incredible cold surge if models have it right (incredible cold waves hit Australia and South America recently too, with huge swings).  There must be plenty of cold in the Arctic to do this to NA.  Apparently NH snow mass is 300 gigatons above the 1980-2012 average....I can see why Cohen has commented 

 

BFTP  

Edited October 28, 2020 by BLAST FROM THE PAST

[Midlands Ice Age]

10 hours ago, Turnedoutniceagain said:

Struggling to think if I've ever seen snow on the Mexican border before?

 

Wow

This snow cover looks to be a similar size to the area of Europe....

I guess it signals the loopyness of the jet this year.

MIA

[Midlands Ice Age]

My daily Masie report..

Snow cover solidified today, but the spread to Central North America reflects  an outbreak of the Arctic air there, with considerable snowfall and many record low temps recorded. 

Ice Extent...

Another century added yesterday with total extent up to 6228KKm2 a gain of 102K KM2, but still in last position,

Barents gained slightly (+9K), whilst Chukchi stalled again(-4K). 

Large gains in ESS again(+28K), while Laptev (+3K) stalled under the new found westerly wind.

On the other hand Kara(+21K) continues to grow, both at  sea and off the coast. A positive sign is that sporadic ice is now appearing at sea - normally a sign of a flash freeze imminent.

CAB( Central)  gained (+19K) as ice continued its spread south into Kara..  

Barents lost(-2K) around Svalbard, but Greenland (+12K) and Baffin (+8K) started to grow again. 

CAA(+5K) and Hudson(+0) flat....

Ice thickness in CAB continues to deepen.

MIA

Edited October 28, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

Was going to add to my post above, but too late (thanks to late meal). 

Arctic DMI temp (above 80 degrees) now in freefall as the ice pack extends and the colder air extends further south. 

The 10-day charts for the NH (Climate Reanalyser) are now showing below -50C minima for Greenland and -30C extending across towards the pole and Beaufort. Additionally below -30C mins are expected widely in Siberia.  These kind of temps will soon begin to freeze out the warmer Arctic waters.

 

10Day charts for av and minimum temps for NH.

      

 

MIA

[matty40s]

13 hours ago, Turnedoutniceagain said:

Struggling to think if I've ever seen snow on the Mexican border before?

 

 

Not that kind of snow anyway!!

It will be interesting to compare this years early snowfall with 2005, Carinthian has already noticed that his Austria snow hasnt seen so much since that year......the previous record hurricane year.

[Midlands Ice Age]

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

Not that kind of snow anyway!!

It will be interesting to compare this years early snowfall with 2005, Carinthian has already noticed that his Austria snow hasnt seen so much since that year......the previous record hurricane year.

I am awaiting the Rutgers monthly snow reports  to see if new records have been broken.

Meantime more 'news'/forecasts from the USA on their record breaking cold outbreak.

Temps were a record breaking 30-60F below average over large swathes of the Central Southern states on Monday night/Tuesday. 

 

and it doesn't end here.

Tropical Storm Zeta currently in the Carib is expected to move into the southern states and move northwards.

It will strengthen to Hurricane 1 status before it lands.

Guess what?

as it travels Northwards it will engage with the current cold and bring a very strong winter storm to the NE of the USA.

Floods, blizzards and heavy snow are expected widely.

MIA

[BornFromTheVoid]

Ice growth is finally taking off along the Russian Arctic seas, doubling in extent over the last 7 days.

[Midlands Ice Age]

BFTV - nice to see you posting good some news.

Another 67K Km2 added today... to keep the momentum growing.

 

Masie today...

Total extent 6358K Km2  up 130KKm2 on yesterday, but still trailing long term.

Areas -

Beaufort (+4K) and Chukchi(+24K) still in consolidation mode.

Major gains along the whole Russian coastline currently in for growth, with ESS(+24K), Laptev(+26K) Kara(+17K)

Barents in wait mode (0K) as the arctic ice front is pushed north slightly in the west with  Greenland(-2K) and Central (CAB) (+0K). 

In North America, Baffin(+5K), CAA(+32K) and Hudson(+1K) all gained slightly. 

Ice still thick in the CAB, and volume still above 2019 overall.

End of month coming up,  with both Rutgers (snow cover) and PIOMAS (ice volume) should prove interesting.

 

For the details above consult the following link and use the + function after clicking on the graph presented.

It gives a magnification of about 20 times on the usual maps, and enables one to see the development of all the coastal ice, also shows fresh ice patches in the seas which tie up well with developing ice fronts the next day. 

http://masie_web.apps.nsidc.org/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02186/latest/4km/masie_all_r00_4km.png

    and for thickness  

Something of interest that I have only just realised is that Masie shows all ice (including visible (if nec)) whereas DMI only picks up any ice when it gets up to a certain finite level. I guess that it takes its data from the NSIDC data bases (less resolution) , whereas Masie uses the higher resolution data produced by the higher resolution (4K) images. 

Hence the difference between the 2 models if checking extent. 

MIA

Edited October 29, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

Early morning report  on the snow and ice  based upon UKNIC..

Snow more extensive in East Siberia (all the way to Pacific now), but has slipped eastward in the west.

North America - some contraction,  particularly along the west coast, but still very high. 

Sea Ice - large (though generalised) increases in many areas.

Already JAXA has reported a 250K Km2 increase.

Back with Masie later.

   

 

Some interesting latest snow data charts can be found on this website -

https://globalcryospherewatch.org/state_of_cryo/snow/

And yes snow cover is very high in the NH.

MIA

   

Edited October 30, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age

[BornFromTheVoid]

NSIDC daily extent increase was +299k, 4th largest single day increase in October in over 30 years. Still 628k less than the next lowest year on record though.

[Snipper]

2 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

Early morning report  on the snow and ice  based upon UKNIC..

Snow more extensive in East Siberia (all the way to Pacific now), but has slipped eastward in the west.

North America - some contraction,  particularly along the west coast, but still very high. 

Sea Ice - large (though generalised) increases in many areas.

Already JAXA has reported a 250K Km2 increase.

Back with Masie later.

   

 

Some interesting latest snow data charts can be found on this website -

https://globalcryospherewatch.org/state_of_cryo/snow/

And yes snow cover is very high in the NH.

MIA

   

Interesting site. One for my favourites.

[Midlands Ice Age]

5 minutes ago, BornFromTheVoid said:

NSIDC daily extent increase was +299k, 4th largest single day increase in October in over 30 years. Still 628k less than the next lowest year on record though.

BFTV..

 Thanks for the above..

That is both JAXA and NSIDC showing extremely large gains today,

Can I ask why you think that is?

Do you see any actual detail as to why or where it has grown so much?

Masie has shown a steady increase more consistently, and you can see where the gains have occurred. 

I am not expecting that sort of number from Masie. But one never knows.

Could it be the result of the sieves for coastal sea ice changing at the end of the month, as I have noticed that roughly every 15 days we get a large change from NSIIDC (both up and down)?

 MIA 

 

[BornFromTheVoid]

1 hour ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

BFTV..

 Thanks for the above..

That is both JAXA and NSIDC showing extremely large gains today,

Can I ask why you think that is?

Do you see any actual detail as to why or where it has grown so much?

Masie has shown a steady increase more consistently, and you can see where the gains have occurred. 

I am not expecting that sort of number from Masie. But one never knows.

Could it be the result of the sieves for coastal sea ice changing at the end of the month, as I have noticed that roughly every 15 days we get a large change from NSIIDC (both up and down)?

 MIA 

 

Here's a map of the daily change for the NISDC data.

Main areas are on the ESS side of the central pack and the Kara sea, so it's not related to a change in the land/sea masks.
This agrees with the ADS/JAXA data, that you can see here: 

http://ads.nipr.ac.jp/../faviconADS.ico VISHOP

ADS.NIPR.AC.JP

---

VIsualization Service of Horizontal scale Observations at Polar region

The massive increases are somewhat inevitable. The sea ice minimum is shrinking at a much faster rate than the maximum, so after the 2nd smallest minimum value the refreeze rate eventually has to accelerate to faster than the long term average. This may be extra notable this year because we've gone so far into Autumn without a significant freeze up (hence all the crazy record lows).
I fully expect to see several 200k+ gains over the next few weeks. In fact the years with the 10 lowest minima average 7.5 200k+ daily gains, while all other years average 3.5. 2011 had 11 200k+ daily gains! We've only had one so far.

 

 

[Midlands Ice Age]

Thanks BFTV for the above.

I now have Masie figures and they do not agree with NSIDC (and/or my assumptions anyway)!

Masie extent advanced by an extremely large (+293K Km2) to total 6651K Km2.

I looked at the Russian sea-board first and I could ONLY find about 100K of the increase!.

This through ESS(+30K), Laptev(+43K) and Kara(+7), In addition Barents added (+4K). Respectable enough, but not even half the total. 

Beaufort (+7K) and Chukchi(+17K)  both continued their steady refreeze.

Greenland (+18K) and the CAB (-9K), contributed little,

So that 'only' leaves North America.

There Baffin(+59K) and CAA (+82K) provided  half of the total, and Hudson (+35K) chipped in.

Baffin and CAA both exploded south eastwards, and CAA has only the extreme west and a bit of the south to refreeze now.

Hudson started to freeze around most of its coastline, and not too surprisingly with what was going on around,  the Foxe Basin froze along the east coastline. 

The cold flooding into North America was the real culprit.

 

The Russian Coastline seas are still holding out for a bit longer, but sporadic ice patches,  out to sea,  are now giving away its intentions.

When it goes, and there is a lot left to freeze,  it will suddenly freeze out.

MIA  

 

   

Edited October 30, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age

[BornFromTheVoid]

@Midlands Ice Age
I downloaded the MASIE data and made a change map from the last 2 days.

As the regional numbers suggest, lots of ice gained in the CAA and Baffin. It looks like Hudson Bay has new ice all along the south western shoreline, probably where the water is most shallow so can rapidly cool and freeze under the current exceptional cold.

[Midlands Ice Age]

Thanks BFTV...

 It looks quite impressive in your graphic form.

MIA

[Midlands Ice Age]

18 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

 

When it goes, and there is a lot left to freeze, it will suddenly freeze out...       

  

 

Well this morning in the US NIC it has happened.

This time it looks as if it is the Russian oceans  have finally eliminated the surface warmth.

Kara has seen the main Arctic ice pack reach the coastline via 'a bridge' - as I have been predicting for a couple of days.

It is not often that that Kara leads the ESS. I guess it is a testamaent to the strength/effect of the warmer easterly winds of a week ago.

Looks like a very large  double century gain yesterday. Already JAXA has recorded just short of a triple.

Also Chukchi is looking as if it has a date in 2 or 3 days with a Russian bear!

       

 

Snow cover, extended in North America, but pulled back a little in Western Russia.

Temperatures in Siberia have now dropped back to -20C to -30C daytime, and by the end of the week, they are forecast at -45C minimum.  

Winter has finally arrived in the NH.  Lets hope it doesn't forget us!!

MIA  

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Midlands Ice Age