Snow And Ice In The Northern Hemisphere 2011/12

[EML Network]

Just thought some folks might like to see comparisons from where were currently at (Nov 2 charts), to the previous few years

[DR Hosking]

expect some have found this. But the Open University site have an interactive site to go with the frozen planet series on the bbc, on this there is an option to show an interactive map with the ice cancentration for the last 90 days and ice excent since 1979. Hopefully this link will work:

http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/nature-environment/the-environment/environmental-studies/frozen-planet-explore-the-polar-regions

[cyclonic happiness]

Morning guys!

Well today's update at least shows a bit more snow up in Scandi', we are still overall a little up on average and there should be a decent jolt upwards over the next few days.

And last year....

[Radiating Dendrite]

Apart from Scandi, I would say we are looking a lot better than last year.

Even sea ice looks to have caught up.

[Gavin P]

We should see snow cover developing across western Russia next week as cold air begins to pool around the back of the scandi/euro high.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Gavin P

[BornFromTheVoid]

The latest from Cryosphere Today

[chionomaniac]

Does anybody have the link to the page which tells us where we rank in terms of monthly snowcover (it's in this thread somewhere, i just do not know where).

Here it is sb.

http://climate.rutge...gs.php?ui_set=1

I see we are still below average at the end of October and ranked 30th out of 44. If I remember correctly last October we were in the top 3 - actually that was 2009 - how time flies.

Edited November 4, 2011 by chionomaniac

[shedhead]

Here it is sb.

http://climate.rutge...gs.php?ui_set=1

I see we are still below average at the end of October and ranked 30th out of 44. If I remember correctly last October we were in the top 3 - actually that was 2009 - how time flies.

The current and projected lack of lying snow across Scandi concerns me, it could well be the last third of the month before we see 40%+ cover IF the latest progs are anywhere near correct. No only will there be little in the way of snow, but south of about 65N ground/soil temps look set to remain well above normal values, meaning any marginal snow events even through late Nov/early Dec may well struggle to provide a decent cover.

[Strider]

The irony is the current block over eastern europe which is keeping our weather mild is helping the snow cover to build up faster

It's better to have the right synoptics at the right time so I'm entirely comfortable with this.

Looking at the models it looks as though we may have to wait until mid-month (a week or so) before Scandi gets a proper pasting

[summer blizzard]

Here it is sb.

http://climate.rutge...gs.php?ui_set=1

I see we are still below average at the end of October and ranked 30th out of 44. If I remember correctly last October we were in the top 3 - actually that was 2009 - how time flies.

They must use a data set that is delayed a few days because we are up on last year.

[damianslaw]

The current and projected lack of lying snow across Scandi concerns me, it could well be the last third of the month before we see 40%+ cover IF the latest progs are anywhere near correct. No only will there be little in the way of snow, but south of about 65N ground/soil temps look set to remain well above normal values, meaning any marginal snow events even through late Nov/early Dec may well struggle to provide a decent cover.

Yes I remember back to Dec 2002, when we had a strong scandi high and easterly/southeasterly winds which under normal circumstance should have produced some snow showers and cold weather, but delivered average conditions and sleety very wet snow showers which struggled to cover the ground thanks to a warm surface. That year saw little snowcover also to our east and hence a warm continent.

But I am not worrying too much at this stage about lack of snowcover over scandi.

West Russia including Moscow should see some hefty snowfalls in the coming days thanks to the repositioning of the current heights over europe, but scandi wil have to wait a bit longer it seems.

[summer blizzard]

When it comes to importing cold from Europe, it is very important to look at the moisture levels of the ground. The current Euro High would not actually be a problem at the surface because with a very dry ground, the ground would cool very quickly if we got a swift pattern change.

[cyclonic happiness]

Morning!

Here's today's lot, as you can see we are starting to get rather a large negative anomoly in north eastern Europe, shouldn't last but it is important to lasting cold in Europe.

and last year......

and back to this....

[Gavin Hannah]

Todays snow and ice cover.

[cyclonic happiness]

Here's an interesting graph I found on a website showing the northern hemisphere snow cover in millions of miles from the last 40 years.

It shows a very noticable dip of snow levels in 2007 followed by 3 of the snowiest winters in 40 years in the last 4 years and an incline in global snow levels over 40 years, a small one, but an increase non the less.

Edited November 5, 2011 by cyclonic happiness

[Bishop Brennan]

Fascinating graph, thanks for sharing. I couldn't help but notice the remarkably low showing for 1981 - wasn't that a cold, snowy winter for the UK? I was just 7yo at the time, but distinctly remember some severe winters in the late 70's and especially the early 80's.

Bish

[Aaron]

A cold winter in the UK does not mean a cold winter for everywhere

[osmposm]

Fascinating graph, thanks for sharing. I couldn't help but notice the remarkably low showing for 1981 - wasn't that a cold, snowy winter for the UK?.....

It's a N hemisphere winter (not annual) snow cover chart, and the last bar is for 2011 - so each one must show the figure for the winter ending in that year. Thus '1981' is for winter 1980-81 - the cold, snowy winter you mention was the following year, 1981-82; and although much of it fell in December 1981, that is often referred to as 'Winter 1982' (as here).

Edited November 6, 2011 by osmposm

[cyclonic happiness]

Morning all!

Well there was a good snow gain in north America yesterday and small gains in Europe :-)

this year.......

last year.......

and the rest of todays....

[trisnow]

What does the big red anamoly mean CH?

I originally thought it meant that we were down on snow cover this year compared to last? But looking at the images we look to have quite a bit more this year where the red is?

[Isolated Frost]

Trisnow, it's the anomaly between this season and the long term average snow cover?

[stewfox]

Morning all!

Well there was a good snow gain in north America yesterday and small gains in Europe :-)

Its just amazing the effect of the Gulf stream on ice development

[trisnow]

Ah right IF, that would make sense. Cheers

I'll run a quick comparison between the last few years, hopefully we are at the top or near there.

[trisnow]

Snow cover percentage last few years for Nov 5th

2009 = 0.1016%

2004 = 0.1012%

2006 = 0.1001%

2011 = 0.0966%

2008 = 0.0890%

2005 = 0.0819%

2010 = 0.0777%

2007 = 0.0742%

[trisnow]

Using the same (slightly crude pixel count method) the ice cover is doing really well after the really low minimum it reached!

2008 = 0.0493

2011 = 0.0491

2006 = 0.0487

2005 = 0.0483

2009 = 0.0479

2004 = 0.0478

2010 = 0.0476

2007 = 0.0459

Actually, scrub that Ice cover as this seems to state otherwise..

Edited November 6, 2011 by trisnow