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Author Topic: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.  (Read 10351 times)

Frivolousz21

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While we are experiencing a very -AO to maybe record setting.  And have experienced in the past.

Unlike the past multiple factors have come together to show a glimpse of the horrible damage we are doing to our planet.

The Sun has yet to reach the North Pole and parts of Greenland are on fire.

Surface temps in the low to mid 50's along parts of the South Western Greenland coast is shattering records and is just plain absurd.


First of all SST's in the NW Atlantic are way above normal. So air-masses being pulled North into Greenland are warmer and higher in dew point that normal.  Probably near modern extremes for this time of year.



http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?mosaic=Arctic.2013076.terra.1km


the link will lead you to the horror show.

Snow is melting off the land and ice edges.  Essentially the snow left in spots on the ice is either none or very wet or not very deep. If the land snow is vanishing the ice next to it can't have much deeper snow.

Now does this add a lot to the land ice loss now?

No.  But it's not likely a lot of snow is gonna fall between now and May. This could leave this region of Greenland just jumping into the melt season with no protective cover and no land snow to help moderate temps at all.

On top of that SST's are starting out well above normal. 

Next we see Sea level's have risen quite dramatically.  I hate to break it to the crowd that is trying to sell that Antarctica is not losing land ice but thermal expansion has slowed to a crawl the last 7 years.  I doubt Greenland and the worlds other land ice deposits can do this all alone.


We also know ENSO variation is not to blame. 




The torch is expected for 2-3 more days but Greenland doesn't exactly go into the deep freeze anytime soon.  At least not the melt areas. 


OH PS.  ANTARCTICA IS ALSO TORCHING.  BIG TIME.
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RaenorShine

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2013, 07:43:36 PM »
Its not looking good is it?

The ski lift website in nuuk tells it all ( google translate warning  :P)

Quote
The ski lift today 16/03 to 2013
The ski lift Today Saturday 16/03-2013 at: 08.27 ski lift is provisionally closed and it does not look good both in terms of snow conditions right now and in the future the næsteugestid there is nothing to suggest that there will be more snow øvv .. 

The webcam of the ski slope shows the problem, massive melt.

http://www.skilift.gl/

Neven

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2013, 10:27:48 PM »
Look at air temperature anomaly since the start of the year:



I think Baffin Bay is going to clear very early again this year. It's already lower than it was last year around this time:



This will very probably have repercussions again for the south western coast of Greenland.
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Jim Williams

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2013, 06:02:29 PM »
Might be just a slight overstatement to say that the Gulf Stream is heading west of Greenland.....

AndrewP

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2013, 12:46:57 AM »
The NSIDC statement mentions heavy snow over most of the continent. Where is the proof that snow is thin and/or melting on the actual ice sheet? There has been essentially zero melt thus far according to NSIDC on the actual ice sheet. Only the warmest locations on the continent have seen melt. I could believe that some of these coastal locations have thin/no snow, but the albedo effects will be miniscule to Greenland as a whole.

Regarding the past two years of rapid SLR and your hypothesis that it is caused by Antarctica:

There has been no acceleration in ice sheet mass balance on Antarctica according to satellites. Here is the relevant data from the 2012 study:

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64474000/gif/_64474482_ice_sheet_contribution_464.gif

My guess is that we are just playing catch up from whatever caused the slowdown in 2010. My recollection is that a lot of water was being stored on land then, and that this water is now running off. That and/or the trend towards El Nino the past couple years is enhancing SLR.

Your assertion that we "know it's not ENSO" is flat out wrong. El Nino contributes to SLR. We have been transitioning from La Nina conditions to El Nino conditions since late 2010.

Sigmetnow

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2013, 05:09:54 PM »
Just east of Disco Bay, the glaciers near the shore have a definite blue tint.  Does this mean their snow cover has melted?  Thanks.
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gfwellman

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2013, 08:04:06 PM »
Generally yes.  Later in the summer, on clear days you'll see a progression with pure white at high altitudes, then a band of light blue, then light grey, dark grey, light grey.  Here's an example

The grey is of course dust and other "crud that makes dirty snow".  How dark it is depends on many factors - the wind deposits less dust at higher altitude, meltwater (and rain) washes it away (sometimes completely, as in down a moulin or out to sea, sometimes just downslope).  The darkest band could be where the slope changes most with steep slopes above and shallow slopes below.  Or it could be the altitude just above where rain is common enough to wash more of it away.  Does anyone here know the dominant factor in where the darkest band is?

Mark Tough

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2013, 07:10:08 AM »
Hi gfwellman,

The melt season is underway on the East Coast as well. The links below are to the excellent dmi site which for me is a mixture of science, art and childhood wonder - there's real beauty in the images. At Timmiarmiut as of the 26 Mar 2013 the fjords are opening early so the sea ice is getting attacked from both sides.

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/image_container.php

Trying to look back one year previously there was a lot of cloud in the area - the best comparative shot I could get was from the 9th of April but it's telling with practically no fjords open two weeks later in the melt season.

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/image_container.php

It's certainly warming up in Greenland - it's going to be an interesting year.

I also agree to some extent with AndrewP that ENSO has an effect on Sea Level rise but it's more La Nina than El Nino. The latter doesn't really spike sea level but a strong La Nina really slows it down with a heck of a lot of water on land that can take a couple of years to flow through the river systems. As an Aussie I can attest to that. We really are in a La Nada phase at the moment and the models are predicting more of the same. We could have another La Nina next - who knows but if you want some info try the Bureau of Meteorology site in Oz - it has a fortnightly update (note the different tabs to check out) it's pretty good.

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/

Frivolousz21

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I got a nickname for all my guns
a Desert Eagle that I call Big Pun
a two shot that I call Tupac
and a dirty pistol that love to crew hop
my TEC 9 Imma call T-Pain
my 3-8 snub Imma call Lil Wayne
machine gun named Missy so loud
it go e-e-e-e-ow e-e-e-e-e-e-blaow

Tim King

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Re: The South Western Coast of Greenland is being Epically ravished.
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2013, 09:21:21 AM »
This ECMWF based forecast for thursday next week from the Icelandic Met Service shows 850 Hpa
high temps for Western Greenland together with a continuation of the cold pattern for NW Europe