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

[BornFromTheVoid]

Extent in the Sea of Okhotsk has climbed to the 10th highest position for January 27th. Conversely, Baffin Bay and the Gulf of St Lawrence on the opposite side of the Arctic are 2nd lowest and lowest on record respectively.

  

The effect of the -ve NAO on ice near eastern Canada is quite clear (red line is the 81-10 average)

[Midlands Ice Age]

Interesting BFTV..

Along  a similar theme of looking at individual areas.... 

Just a quick (?) note from me today (not a report).

Masie  only increased by a below average (+16K), but I felt it worthwhile discussing the Barents today.

Progress, until recently,  has been stunted.  The Central Arctic ice pack being held well to the North of Svalbard by the warmer currents. About a week ago, I then observed that the ice around the Russian coastline was beginning to stir outwards at a pace quicker than I had noticed for several years.

Now, today, for the first time a really positive signal, I believe. Scattered ice patches have appeared well south of the main pack, about halfway between it and the Russian coastline.

These patches are visible on the DMI  (Masie) ice map for the area below. Basically, not only are  they showing about 200 miles west out from Severna Zemlya Islands, but also  possibly of more interest are the multiple  patches suddenly showing to the SE and South of Svalbard, even down to around the Bear Isles.  Last year the ice (best for several years) managed to get south of these Islands.

 

Will we see a reprise this year?

My optimism is based upon my observation that scattered ice patches out to sea often precede a very quick freeze in the area..

If the current models are correct the area will be flooded by -35C uppers shortly and it is something I will be watching out for, 

The implications of a strong Barents is that total sea ice extent could well exceed 15,000K Km2 this year.

 

 

MIA

Edited January 28, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

An update for the N hemisphere for snow and Sea Ice.

Snow cover has increased in the northern European countries. The next week should be interesting.

It is 5 days since my last update... as increases are now reducing, but there is still a month left of increases.

The last 5 days have seen small changes each day of (+16K), (+18K), (-28K), (-6K) and today (+67K).

The total sea ice extent according to Masie is now at 14,133K Km2, maintaining its  net annual position in the table.

Area changes continue mainly in the peripheral regions, though with a (+16K) improvement in the CAB around Svalbard.

The south of Svalbard has seen the Barents Sea begin to spring into life. It increased by (+76K) as the ice formed more widely between it and Bear Island, whilst expanding back into Severnaya Zemlya, and filling in the entrance to Murmansk.. 

Elsewhere the Sea of Okhotsk lost ground due to warmer weather out towards the outlaying islands.  (-72K), however Bering gained (+32K), 

Other notable gains for Baltic (+5K) and Baffin (+16K) may be forerunners for the next week.

If the current forecasts hold it is going to be interesting to see how much ice forms in the Baltic. Very low temperatures are still be recording in Siberia and this has now moved to North West Russia, re-enforcing any cold spilling out into Scandinavia.

Volume is still holding out well and I suspect will be the beneficiary of the February refreeze this year, as the Arctic high is positioned perfectly to keep the cold over the Arctic Ocean, with very little escape into Fram for the next few days.

MIA

Edited February 1, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

Latest update on the Sea Ice and Northern Hemisphere, just before we go into the freezer here in the UK and Europe.

But America is also forecast some mind bending cold at the same time.

Snow cover, so far looks very similar to my last report from 5 days ago. 

However Sea ice has been in ' steady gain mode' at the moment due to the peripheral areas going into full growth as very cold air sweeps across the whole Arctic and down into lower latitudes.

Masie sea ice extent has increased by 303K Km2 in the last 5 days to 14.436K Km2 (average 60K KM2 against an average of 150K Km2 for the 5 days. This comprised of changes of +67K, +69K, +108K, -9K, +70K and today +65K KM2.

Gains were recorded in Barents (+123K) where the signs are that the ice is heading for a level greater than that of last year, extending now almost to Bear Isle again, and  this is also beginning to surround Svalbard from the south (as happened last year). However this year,  the ice extends out from the Russian coastline more so than last year and looks as though with current forecasts could  fill up a large part of the ocean, before ice melt season starts up.

Baltic (+23K) also is now in position to similarly hit new levels not seen since 2010, thanks to the current low temperatures being forecast for Scandinavia and North Western Russia.

The SOO (+126K) is also looking at breaking highest levels for a decade.

After moving against these increasing trend  for a month, Baffin (+75K) has suddenly started to increase again. I expect large gains here within the next 2 weeks thanks to the breath-taking cold developing in Eastern Canada at the moment. 

Bering (-5K) appears to be gaining on one side but losing on the other at the moment.

So as a review,  at an interim point on the way to the ice max (early March),  my estimate of 15,130K KM2 is beginning to look slightly low at the moment.

Greenland is in varying modes at the moment (+7K) as the Fram appears to be mainly very quiet.

Note - it must also be observed that currently the ice within the basin is still not 'thickening/increasing' at a high rate.  The basin is just about full in extent now, but does not appear to be thickening. This can be observed through volume graphics. My expectation is that this will also improve rapidly as the full effects of the SSW become apparent with very dry air.

 

 

Masie extent graphs for the areas discussed above can be seen below -

 

    

Also of interest is that JAXA is even more bullish than Masie on the current sea ice growth.  It shows that this ice growth season has exceeded the decade average by just under 10% and is now at number 12 in the series of lowest years since the year 2000. 

 

 

Let us hope that the upcoming northern hemisphere farrago will allow further ice and snow growth, as per current expectations.,  Certainly an interesting fortnight coming up.

MIA 

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Turnedoutniceagain]

Loving those UK pixels

 

 

[Midlands Ice Age]

Masie update for today after a gap of a further5 days-

Snow chart - some snow pixels in Northern Europe now and still some over the Eastern UK. 

 

Masie sea ice after 5 days has seen some slower increases , but a common theme seems to be a large increase at the end.

Masie extent total 14,516K Km2 an increaseof 127K Km2 today after changes of +39K, -22K, -40K, -24K and +127K since my last report.

Increases in Barents (+94K) and Baltic (+24K) have, as discussed previously,  been leading the way. 

Barents ice is now approaching the much higher levels recorded last year, with extensive main pack  ice East of Svalbard, and also now rapidly closing in on Bear Isle.  Coastal sea Russian ice is continuing to move towards the North of Norway.

Also in consequence the Baltic Ice is also looking strong this year, with the Gulf of Bothnia now being 70% iced over, and still a cold outlook for the area.

Baffin (-62K) has suffered continued melt around Labrador and is now the only area below recent averages.

Over in the East Bering (+28K) has gained, but SOO(-20K) has seen some losses.

 

3 more weeks to the end of the season. Will it be stasis or will the ice extend itself further.

 

Jaxa is now running in 11th lowest in the last 15 years..

 

 

and Jaxa is also currently running at 9'5% (1miilion Km2) sea ice growth above the average on the last 10 years.  So there is no indication that the Arctic is not capable of remaining with a substantial winter coverage in the future. 

Worldwide sea ice extent cover also continues to look healthy -

It being 9th lowest in the last of the last 20 years after a good last 3 months growth -

Current outlook for sea ice looks quite good for the next month.

MIA

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

Thought it was worthwhile a special report on what is happening in Northern Europe, where sea ice levels  are reaching decadel records, and have a lot of chance of going much higher yet......

First of  all the snow and Ice Chart for today -

Here we still see the snow cover is intact in north Europe, as is the partial coverage in the UK.

It is the Barents Sea ice that is worth reporting and discussing , even though it may not look eye-catching on the chart.

Masie today has recorded 850K Km2 extent for day 42.

Sounds fairly bland, but on checking back it is the level highest (with 2 other years) in the last 16. This early in the season it is unprecedented in that time-scale.

I have pulled out certain data to illustrate the point.(see below). 

Also shown is that for the Baltic which is also heading for record territory.

Masie extents for some years together with the dates of maximum -

           Barents                                                                      Baltic

2021   Day 42       850K                                 Day 42           110K

2020    Day110     787K                                                          30K   

2019     Day77      823K                                                           40K

2018     Day96      800K                                                           66K

2017     Day97      595K                                                           70K

2016     Day84      600K                                                           100K

2015     Day 87     721K                                                            40K 

2014                                                                                          100K 

2013                                                                                          130K     and so on until .......              

2011     Day 93     850K                                    Day 93           310K

2010     Day78      855K                                    Day 78           270K    and so on until... 

2006     Day66      741K                                    Day 66           170K 

So as the above shows we are at record levels (for the era) in Barents with probably at least 30 days to go.

This is undoubtedly associated with the width of ice cover extending out from the Russian coastline as the main pack is still North of Svalbard. Recent data, however, shows the pack beginning to start the process of surrounding Svalbard ,  as also happened last year for the first year in 5. The ice is also likely to reach Bear Isle shortly again as happened last year for the first time for 5 years.

Elsewhere,  we are seeing the Baltic Sea already being at its highest level for  8 years, and with an average of 50 days to go (end of March) to its maximum, it  is likely to challenge the levels last seen in 2010/2011, when the Baltic more or less totally froze over. 

The whole of the Russian coastline, after a very slow start in October, has been freezing much faster this year. The ice is deepening quite quickly, and I suspect that this is being caused by the hard Siberian winter being experienced over there this year. The Arctic Seas around Finland and Svalbard are merely showing the tip of the coldest air moving westwards out of Russia. 

 The next month of ice watch will be interesting if we keep the Arctic/Scandinavian high in place.

MIA  

[Aleman]

The very cold weather in Europe is trying to form an ice bridge from Denmark to Sweden (57degrees left hand side). It nearly did it a decade ago but I think it last did it properly in the 70s if my memory is correctly remembering something I read somewhere. (This explains why Danes and Swedes have many similarities. In colder centuries past, you could walk between the two in winter sometimes. Famously, soldiers in groups would weigh the ice down under the water level and end up marching across in a foot or two of freezing water. They must have been tough in those days.)

http://baltice.org/pdf/IceChart_20210216_Baltic.pdf

Edited February 16, 2021 by Aleman

[Aleman]

DMI is showing a full ice bridge now.

Yet on Baltice, it has vanished and the sea temperature jumped 2-3C.

http://baltice.org/pdf/IceChart_20210217_Baltic.pdf

 

 

[Turnedoutniceagain]

Don't recall ever seeing this much coverage in the US?

 

[Geordiesnow]

19 hours ago, Turnedoutniceagain said:

Don't recall ever seeing this much coverage in the US?

 

Nope and since snow cover got recorded, it is currently highest by a fair margin over the states. Suspect it will come down as things start to warm up but makes a nice change from the usual warm records are used too. 

[York-snow]

10 hours ago, Geordiesnow said:

Nope and since snow cover got recorded, it is currently highest by a fair margin over the states. Suspect it will come down as things start to warm up but makes a nice change from the usual warm records are used too. 

The US has set many cold records in last few years, it’s Europe which seems to be setting the warm ones more regularly 

[nobble]

Ice bridges between Denmark and Sweden ! 
most of the us blanketed in snow 

a very cold Russian winter 

hopefully the winters can keep this up and northern hemisphere ice start to grow again !!

[Midlands Ice Age]

It is 2 weeks since I last reported.

During that time the cold has receded from Europe and the US major freeze has subsided.

So at the end of the month, where do we stand?

Well, the last 2 weeks have contained a large drop in 2 major ice areas. 

Firstly in the first week when  SOO which dropped about 250K Km2, before slowly recovering in the last week. Though still 125K km2 below its maximum 2 weeks ago.

The Barents after a quiet first week then went into decline and has lost 200K Km2 during the week just gone.

Masie sea ice extent now stands at 14,511KKm2 down from a maximum of 14,627kKm2 at the maximum 2 weeks ago.

The last 2 days have seen an increase of 180K Km2 with increases of 125K and 60K in consecutive days.

The A.S.I. Forum (amid confusion due to problems with the NSIDC data)  had written off the previous maxima back on Feb 23rd, but are now awaiting events.

Weather conditions in the Arctic have now changed  back to ice formation conditions  in the 2 areas which had started to melt out.

Attached here are the DMI extent  graphs by full and in individual areas which plainly show the current situation.

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

Volume of ice has not behaved in the same way during this period.

DMI volume graphs show a steady gain in volume over the last 2 weeks, mainly due to the ice thickening quite readily along the Russian coastline, as well as in the local seas around there. 

   

Volume normally gains for about 6weeks yet, despite the maxima for extent being in the next 6 days.

Still more interest to come.

MIA

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

13 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

It is 2 weeks since I last reported.

During that time the cold has receded from Europe and the US major freeze has subsided.

So at the end of the month, where do we stand?

Well, the last 2 weeks have contained a large drop in 2 major ice areas. 

Firstly in the first week when  SOO which dropped about 250K Km2, before slowly recovering in the last week. Though still 125K km2 below its maximum 2 weeks ago.

The Barents after a quiet first week then went into decline and has lost 200K Km2 during the week just gone.

Masie sea ice extent now stands at 14,511KKm2 down from a maximum of 14,627kKm2 at the maximum 2 weeks ago.

The last 2 days have seen an increase of 180K Km2 with increases of 125K and 60K in consecutive days.

The A.S.I. Forum (amid confusion due to problems with the NSIDC data)  had written off the previous maxima back on Feb 23rd, but are now awaiting events.

Weather conditions in the Arctic have now changed  back to ice formation conditions  in the 2 areas which had started to melt out.

Attached here are the DMI extent  graphs by full and in individual areas which plainly show the current situation.

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

Volume of ice has not behaved in the same way during this period.

DMI volume graphs show a steady gain in volume over the last 2 weeks, mainly due to the ice thickening quite readily along the Russian coastline, as well as in the local seas around there. 

   

Volume normally gains for about 6weeks yet, despite the maxima for extent being in the next 6 days.

Still more interest to come.

MIA

 

Two very good graphs showing the extraordinary events in the SOO and Barents this February were produced on the ASIF and have been shown /produced here for your perusal.

In addition a further century increase has been recorded today by Jaxa, so we will await the Masie data later. 

 

 

MIA

[Midlands Ice Age]

10 hours ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

Two very good graphs showing the extraordinary events in the SOO and Barents this February were produced on the ASIF and have been shown /produced here for your perusal.

In addition a further century increase has been recorded today by Jaxa, so we will await the Masie data later. 

 

 

MIA

Well, well, what 'a weird' late freeze we are having.

Checked on Masie and it shows nearly a double century increase of (+195K Km2) up to a new high for the year of 14,706K Km2.

I have no idea really what is happening, but it seems as though the recent ice losses in Barents and the ESS have been completely reversed.

Gains today of (+53K) in Barents and (+70K) in the SOO, re-appeared almost as quickly as they were lost a week ago.

In addition there were gains in Bering (+32K) and Greenland (+31K), to say nothing of the reformation of ice in Baltic (+6K) over 2 days. Even Arctic Central recovered back by (+24K).

These changes can only have been driven by sudden changes in weather as the temperature in the Arctic is still above normal for the time of year. 

 

However we do have a deep low pressure over the Bering Sea and this is expected to remain in the area, forcing strong very cold winds from Siberia down into the SOO. This looks likely to persist for sometime, and overall the Arctic is below normal for the first time for a while. Many of the continental air masses are below average temperature.

 

 

So the search for this years maximum will continue for a little while yet.

The NSIDC climate dataset has still not been corrected. It is now nearly 2 weeks since it first started to behave in an unexpected fashion. Let us hope that they can reconstruct a sensible dataset during these strange times.

At least we still have JAXA and Masie to keep a reasonable perspective of the status.

MIA 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

A further update from me on the Arctic ice after missing 3 days...

 Another century gain today after 2 days of smaller  losses on Masie.

Masie extent now at 14,753K KM2  -  a new high for the refreeze year, and now in 6th lowest position in the last 16 years. There are normally 6 days left of refreeze now,

Gains of a net(+35K) in the SOO have brought it back to where it stood before the large losses of last week.

Barents too is recovering though more slowly (+7K) over the 3 days, but 50K today, as winds and colder air return..

Elsewhere the Central CAB is slowly gaining extent (up 25K) as it moved slowly southwards towards Svalbard again.

The real loser is Baffin this refreeze, which is not progressing into the Labrador area and is down about 150K compared to normal. 

Extent looks to have some increases left as a  high pressure settles over the Arctic, with cold depressions over Bering creating ice growth in the SOO, and N. Easterly winds being pushed towards Barents by a depression further south in Central Russia.  

Volume over the last month has performed better than average this month with, unusually  for the last 10 years,   good growth along the Russian coastline and also into Beaufort where thicker central multi-year ice has taken over, with the  consequence that the Fram losses have  been lower this year. 

Piomas has volume in  third lowest, whilst DMI ice has been recovering steadily and is ready to move higher during the rest of the volume refreeze season.

 

 

Piomas data from BFTV and the ASIF.

MIA

Edited March 4, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

A possibly final update on the 2021 re-freeze season.

We are   past the normal end of  the maximum for the time of year by 2days, but the ice keeps slowly ( intermittently) growing. 

Latest Masie sea ice extent is 14.874K KM2, - currently in 9th lowest position in the last 16 years, The last 7days have seen slower increases with daily changes of (+39K, -5K, +7K, +50K, -36K, +74K and +7K).

SOO and Barents have returned to their previous maximums, Bering has gradually increased, but Baltic has halved (back to 75KKM2) , however the biggest loser was the Baffin Seas, which 'underperformed' by about 250K KM2 this year.

It has left my prediction of 15,100K KM2 an over-estimate.

The  days of ice increases are now virtually ended.

However all is not lost,  as on a worldwide basis ice is recovering rapidly this year. It being in the top dozen years since 1970 due to a combination of a strong Arctic ice growth season (nearly 10 % more since the end of October) and a very strong Antarctic ice early season growth  (100% more than average) and in the top 6 since the records began.

See ASIF maps for worldwide and Arctic JAXA ice extent details.

          

 

Back with the official end of refreeze season stats, when confirmed..

MIA

  

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[BornFromTheVoid]

As it looks like the maximum has been reached (8th lowest on record), here's the min to max at 10 day intervals.

[Midlands Ice Age]

On 11/03/2021 at 20:08, Midlands Ice Age said:

A possibly final update on the 2021 re-freeze season.

We are   past the normal end of  the maximum for the time of year by 2days, but the ice keeps slowly ( intermittently) growing. 

Latest Masie sea ice extent is 14.874K KM2, - currently in 9th lowest position in the last 16 years, The last 7days have seen slower increases with daily changes of (+39K, -5K, +7K, +50K, -36K, +74K and +7K).

SOO and Barents have returned to their previous maximums, Bering has gradually increased, but Baltic has halved (back to 75KKM2) , however the biggest loser was the Baffin Seas, which 'underperformed' by about 250K KM2 this year.

It has left my prediction of 15,100K KM2 an over-estimate.

The  days of ice increases are now virtually ended.

However all is not lost,  as on a worldwide basis ice is recovering rapidly this year. It being in the top dozen years since 1970 due to a combination of a strong Arctic ice growth season (nearly 10 % more since the end of October) and a very strong Antarctic ice early season growth  (100% more than average) and in the top 6 since the records began.

See ASIF maps for worldwide and Arctic JAXA ice extent details.

          

 

Back with the official end of refreeze season stats, when confirmed..

MIA

 

I have held off for 10 days since my last update.

During this time the NH sea ice has initially dropped, as expected, but over the last 5 days has since extent has been increasing slowly.

Yesterdays Masie extent was 14,795K Km2 still about 80K Km2, below the maximum recorded on Mar 10th, but a very small reduction at this stage of any melt season.

The interims days values were (-3K), (-29K), (-39K), (-59K), (+2K), (+11K), (+27K) and finally (+25K).

As we can see a fairly steady rise has occurred recently, and this is mainly attributed to the Barents Sea where cold air and winds from the NE have pushed the ice to surround much of Svalbard. and like last year. right the way down down to Bear Isle. 

The Bears there must be enjoying it.

N Easterlies were dragged down by a deep cyclone which moved up from the tip of Greenland. (see below)

Elsewhere, Bering has been steady throughout. SOO, has fluctuated, but recently has shown signs of break up as a largish cyclone has entered the area from the Pacific. 

NH extent has also been adversely affected by the very low values, being observed around Labrador and the Baffin seas. this year. 

 

 

As usual, throughout all the last couple of weeks volume has continued to improve (though at a faster rate than normal).

This is particularly true of the Russian Seas. where after several years. a big increase in depth is being observed under the influence of the cold Siberian mainland.

        ( last year)     

The gains in volume might be expected to last for about a further month yet, depending upon the weather conditions.

I have enclosed some of the relevant ASIF and DMI charts below -

  

      

N Hemisphere sea ice has grown at a rapid rate this season after a very slow start. To say that this is a harbinger is incorrect.  but certainly it is interesting that areas which seem to have been doomed to see hardly any ice in the last 5years, have this year, come back with a resurgence Russian sea areas), whereas others (North of Greenland, Baffin, eg) and around the pole seem to have been adversely affected.

 

In addition,   worldwide sea ice continues to be amongst the highest of the 21st century , under the  influence of the Arctic's slowish decline and the large gains being made in the Antarctic.

The Antarctic is now showing itself as amongst the highest for the last 50 years for the time of year, and is well above the average levels for the 21st century..  

 

    

 

All of which goes to show what an interesting ice re-freeze seen we have just observed.

I will be keeping an eye on the situation, and will report back on the overall NH snow and ice season, when we see  an end to the increases in volume.  This will signal the final end to the 2020-2021 refreeze.

MIA 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[BornFromTheVoid]

The daily Arctic sea ice extent maximum this year occurred on March 11th and was the 8th smallest on record, at 14,866,000 km². This is in line with the long term downward trend of just over 400,000 km² per decade.

[Midlands Ice Age]

My update for March 31st  (10days since the last).

Volume  - my criteria for end of growth - still increasing with another 3 weeks aprox left according to DMI...

This year      last year   

 

Clearly is showing a big increase this year in the Russian sector, with a large gain in thickness, though other areas are not as positive..

Extent has been average or slightly above in most sea areas excepting the Baffin Sea, where the Labrador Sea was about 300 K Km2 lower than normal. 

Current Masie sea ice extent is 14,266K Km2 down from the maximum of 14,794K the surprise maximum on Mar 19th.

This has been produced by daily changes of (-3K), (-66K), (+65K), (-103K), (-32K), (-108K), (+32K), (+45K), (-73K), (-129K), (-66K), (+1K). 

During this time Arctic Temperatures according to above 80 degree DMI has been just around the seasonal normal for the first time this year.

Large changes are about to occur in the weather patterns over the Arctic with a 'long draw' northerly setting in for the Atlantic sectors, with a slack area of low pressure over the Central Arctic. It is the most severe for several years, and whilst it is likely to drive more ice into the Fram, could well increase the ice even further in the Russian sectors, with colder conditions more generally.  

     

 

Interest once more, to complete a really interesting Arctic refreeze season.

MIA

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[Turnedoutniceagain]

Not much sign of a thaw as we move into spring

 

 

 

[Midlands Ice Age]

The 'final' report of the 2020 - 2021 northern hemisphere snow and ice refreeze season from me.

As per the last few years the ice volume has reached its peak in mid April, and is now firmly retreating - the signal to me that refreeze has ended.

 The maximum reached in the last month was the 6th lowest. 

 

Snow cover is still in a reasonable state after several colder episodes recently in both N Europe and N America .

Masie reached a maximum of 14,874K KM2 on March 9th, and has now fallen away to 13,857K Km2 today 18/4.
Recently Northerly winds have pushed the ice pack in the Central basin back to the 80 degree line and even south of Svalbard.

Before this happened extent had dropped quite quickly to 13,635K Km2 during the earlier part of April.

 

Overall,  an average refreeze season for the last 10years (with a slow start, a rapid refreeze in the middle, and a distinctly average last 6 weeks) with the average position being about the 5th to 8th lowest for large periods, during that time.

 None the less an interesting winter season.

Hopefully see every one healthily and safely back for the next refreeze season in September..

MIA

Edited April 19, 2021 by Midlands Ice Age

[claret047]

On 19/04/2021 at 20:34, Midlands Ice Age said:

The 'final' report of the 2020 - 2021 northern hemisphere snow and ice refreeze season from me.

As per the last few years the ice volume has reached its peak in mid April, and is now firmly retreating - the signal to me that refreeze has ended.

 The maximum reached in the last month was the 6th lowest. 

 

Snow cover is still in a reasonable state after several colder episodes recently in both N Europe and N America .

Masie reached a maximum of 14,874K KM2 on March 9th, and has now fallen away to 13,857K Km2 today 18/4.
Recently Northerly winds have pushed the ice pack in the Central basin back to the 80 degree line and even south of Svalbard.

Before this happened extent had dropped quite quickly to 13,635K Km2 during the earlier part of April.

 

Overall,  an average refreeze season for the last 10years (with a slow start, a rapid refreeze in the middle, and a distinctly average last 6 weeks) with the average position being about the 5th to 8th lowest for large periods, during that time.

 None the less an interesting winter season.

Hopefully see every one healthily and safely back for the next refreeze season in September..

MIA

Hello there.

I trust you and your family are well.

Many thanks to you, BFTV and others for making this thread so very interesting. I am sure others concur with me. 

I can hardly wait for late Autumn when the thread comes back to life again.

Kind Regards

Dave