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Author Topic: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs  (Read 142131 times)

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #300 on: February 27, 2019, 09:51:22 AM »
Tonight's CCIN is out. Another big gain. Looks like we are at about 1,550KM^3 vs 1,375KM^3 at same time in 2018.

If 2018's maximum of 1,625KM^3 serves as a proxy, we could expect 1,830KM^3 or more in 2019 at maximum in early-mid April. If our current momentum lasts any longer than 2018's first un-absolute maximum (~3/8), we could add additionally atop the existing lead vs. last year.


bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #301 on: March 02, 2019, 05:53:51 AM »
Seems like the suspicious link between nearly ice-free Bering by 3/1 and crazy SWE and cold in North America has more support after 2/2019. I'm sure there are more factors behind the SWE / cold but this has to be a big one.

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #302 on: March 02, 2019, 08:15:11 AM »
D10 forecasts are becoming quite aggressive with impending snowfall. 00z CMC shows deep falls across very wide areas.



Therefore I think it is unlikely we see a SWE max until at least D10+ although there is probably one coming soon thereafter (within a week or two?). Last year we saw four maximums with the highest occurring in early April for North America.

We are about 150KM^3 ahead of 2018 at the moment as well -- about 11%.



Last year saw a slight overall gain in March (with maxes intermixed). It would be quite interesting if this year added substantially more mass as it would indicate that this "reaction" can indeed be sustained much later into spring if sufficient momentum is built up. Maybe the near complete melt-out of the Bering and its potential non-recovery (unlike 2018) could be the push needed for that to occur (+blocking, +water vapor, +northerly winds sweeping down from Greenland into North America).

Niall Dollard

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #303 on: March 02, 2019, 09:33:46 PM »
Checking in on the Nome webcam from time to time and noticed that they have had a lot of snow of late.

Feb just passed has been the snowiest since 1920. All that mild air SE winds has been poor for Bering ice but great for snow.

Tealight

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #304 on: March 06, 2019, 01:21:20 AM »
With the latest cold outbreak into the USA, North American Snow Extent is back to over two standard deviations above the long term mean. The time is running out to get a low albedo spring for an early sea ice melt.

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #305 on: March 06, 2019, 09:42:20 AM »
North America is about to break the SWE graph again! 1,600KM^3 is just shy of Lake Ontario's volume, and about a Lake Erie's worth above normal for this time of year in the recent satellite record. We won't come close to Lake Huron's 3,500KM^3 but we could do half that at the max. The least amount of flux to substantially perturb AMOC during Agassiz outflows was guesstimated at 2,500KM^3. We are not far from that, and it could soon be happening 1X/each year.

oren

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #306 on: March 06, 2019, 11:47:46 AM »
Best to post a source in support of the 2500 km3 figure, which seems like a serious underestimate.
But in any case, what percentage of NA SWE do you believe can pour into the North Atlantic ocean over the span of a few days? Considering the parts that will melt early or late, sublimate, evaporate or seep underground, or flow in another direction (Arctic, Pacific, south)?
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 11:55:44 AM by oren »

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #307 on: March 06, 2019, 01:02:37 PM »
There are signs of the cold in North America reducing over the next week or 10 days.
The next USA storm looks like dumping rain on Chicago, not snow.

https://www.wunderground.com/news/storms/winter/news/2019-03-05-snow-wind-midwest-plains-severe-thunderstorms-south-weekend

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oren

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #308 on: March 06, 2019, 01:07:44 PM »
Where will all the snowmelt go?


gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #309 on: March 08, 2019, 10:25:51 AM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 7 march

Here are SCE and SWE for North America (NA) and Eurasia (EU)

Eurasia continues to follow the climate models, i.e. more snow at high latitudes but below average SCE as the snowline heads north as the years go by and now steeply declining as the spring approaches. Also maybe  SWE has peaked.

North America still showing both SCE and SWE increased high variation from the average. Signs that Snow Cover Extent has peaked as precipitation gradually falling as rain in higher latitudes towards the 49th parallel. Definite signs of above zero celsius temperatures heading north, though patchy and intermittent, over the next days. Snow Water Equivalent may have peaked (or may not).
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Niall Dollard

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #310 on: March 10, 2019, 02:04:21 PM »
Rutgers northern hemisphere extent for Feb 2019 was 46.03 million km2.

A small positive anomaly of +0.44, like last year.

Above normal extent through USA and much of China (except NE)

Below normal extent in Europe and NE China.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #311 on: March 10, 2019, 02:20:29 PM »
Wunderground.com says the USA is going to get a classic slow-moving March storm next week.

https://www.wunderground.com/news/storms/winter/news/2019-03-08-march-system-severe-flooding-snow-wind-west-plains-south

The balance between rain and snow is going to be interesting. The first image from Wunderground shows a lot of area with rain and less with snow. The 2nd image GFS shows more or less the same. The last image shows that warmth in North America is moving North as does the sun.

So my little prediction that belongs to me for North America (NA) is that by next weekend
- a goodly part of the current thin snow cover in the more southerly latitudes of the USA will be gone, i.e. SCE will be heading South (see image 4.png),
- NA-SWE (snow mass) will either be dithering around the max or will show a loss.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #312 on: March 13, 2019, 03:17:10 PM »
Images at equinox attached.

Spring is coming to North America (and Europe), the snow will melt.

Asia still looking somewhat cold.
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Tealight

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #313 on: March 15, 2019, 11:38:40 PM »
All hail HTML, CSS, Javascript and the W3.CSS template creators.

I managed to combine a beautiful slider with an image slideshow. Now I have the tools to easily compare years against each other. The images are updated in the same place to a new year for easy comparison instead of putting all images into a huge grid like on my old website.

These news are posted here due to the first content using this are the Snow Covered Days maps.

https://cryospherecomputing.tk/Snow-Cover

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #314 on: March 16, 2019, 01:04:56 AM »
That is AMAZING and thank you! One question. Could you make a map comparing 2018 minus 1998 in terms of anomalies? (or a year - year comp tool)? This would be very helpful for comparing yearly shifts vs normals. I am comparing 1998 and 2018 and the 20 year change is astonishing in many regions -- parts of Canada have two to three months of extra snowcover vs. 20 years ago, while parts of the Arctic have become almost entirely ice free!

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #315 on: March 16, 2019, 10:11:01 AM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 15 march

Here are SCE and SWE for North America (NA) and Eurasia (EU)

Eurasia continues to be a poster child for the climate models, i.e. more snow at high latitudes but below average SCE as the snowline heads north as the years go by and now steeply declining as the spring approaches. Also SWE has probably peaked.

From my post on March 10 re Storm Ulmer in North America
Quote
Wunderground.com says the USA is going to get a classic slow-moving March storm next week.

The balance between rain and snow is going to be interesting.... ... my little prediction that belongs to me for North America (NA) is that by next weekend
- a goodly part of the current thin snow cover in the more southerly latitudes of the USA will be gone, i.e. SCE will be heading South
- NA-SWE (snow mass) will either be dithering around the max or will show a loss.

And to my relief and surprise, snow cover extent down by a lot, and snow water equivalent has reduced.

It looks like North America will be a bit dryer and warmth will be heading North and heading East especially from the Pacific Coast over the next 10 days, with some really warm days. So the only question is how quickly SCE and SWE will reduce in North America from now on?
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bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #316 on: March 16, 2019, 10:21:28 AM »
It looks like we may have seen the absolute maximum about a month earlier than 2018. The decline in North America today was quite dramatic and the forecast does not bode well for any additional gains, although this could still change as it isn't April quite yet. But barring a major surprise, we are probably post-SWE max, and despite still being much above average, this may be a bad sign for the sea ice adjacent to Canada this summer (IMO), at least in Beaufort, which is upstream of where major melt should continue occurring.

Tealight

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #317 on: March 17, 2019, 01:17:39 AM »
That is AMAZING and thank you! One question. Could you make a map comparing 2018 minus 1998 in terms of anomalies? (or a year - year comp tool)? This would be very helpful for comparing yearly shifts vs normals. I am comparing 1998 and 2018 and the 20 year change is astonishing in many regions -- parts of Canada have two to three months of extra snowcover vs. 20 years ago, while parts of the Arctic have become almost entirely ice free!

A year to year comparison tool would be nice, but it isn't something I can create easily. All the calculations would need to be done in javascript of which I have almost zero knowledge of. The current year comparison with the slider is just template code added together. It took maybe a reasonable 2-3 hour to create the site, far below the required few days to learn the basics of javascript.

I attached your requested 2018 - 1998 map.

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #318 on: March 17, 2019, 02:01:28 AM »
That is AMAZING and thank you! One question. Could you make a map comparing 2018 minus 1998 in terms of anomalies? (or a year - year comp tool)? This would be very helpful for comparing yearly shifts vs normals. I am comparing 1998 and 2018 and the 20 year change is astonishing in many regions -- parts of Canada have two to three months of extra snowcover vs. 20 years ago, while parts of the Arctic have become almost entirely ice free!

A year to year comparison tool would be nice, but it isn't something I can create easily. All the calculations would need to be done in javascript of which I have almost zero knowledge of. The current year comparison with the slider is just template code added together. It took maybe a reasonable 2-3 hour to create the site, far below the required few days to learn the basics of javascript.

I attached your requested 2018 - 1998 map.

Thank you!!! That is absolutely incredible.

bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #319 on: March 18, 2019, 02:18:09 PM »
Plunging!



We shall see if it continues but at the moment it looks like it will for at least a few more days.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #320 on: March 18, 2019, 03:11:18 PM »
Plunging!

We shall see if it continues but at the moment it looks like it will for at least a few more days.
NA temperatures say yes, but with little rain so wunderground.com suggest an orderly snow melt after the floods.
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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #321 on: March 18, 2019, 05:45:00 PM »
Whats the consensus? Is a high snow mass overlaying sea ice a good or a bad thing?

I know that melt-ponding that in turn was partially responsible for the June cliff of 2012, but then again there's an inference for increased protection from top-melt?
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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #322 on: March 18, 2019, 06:25:16 PM »
Whats the consensus? Is a high snow mass overlaying sea ice a good or a bad thing?

I know that melt-ponding that in turn was partially responsible for the June cliff of 2012, but then again there's an inference for increased protection from top-melt?

I think it depends. If the heavy snow falls early in the freeze season, it will insulate the ice from the cold, preventing it from thickening. If it falls just before the melt season, it may serve to delay the onset of melt.

oren

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #323 on: March 18, 2019, 10:50:56 PM »
What SH said.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #324 on: March 19, 2019, 11:46:49 AM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 18 March

Here are SCE and SWE for North America (NA) and Eurasia (EU)

Eurasia continues to be a poster child for the climate models,  below average SCE as the snowline heads north as the years go by and now steeply declining as the spring approaches. Also SWE has peaked.

The rain and warmth last week shattered the snow season in North America. SCE and SWE still heading strongly downwards. It looks like North America will be a bit dryer and warmth will be heading North and heading East especially from the Pacific Coast over the next 10 days, with some really warm days.

So the only question is how quickly SCE and SWE will reduce in North America from now on? The last image shows average temps for the next 10 days. But daytime temperatures will be much higher than the average shown, so melt will reach to much higher latitudes than the average 32 degrees Fahrenheit isotherm shown on that image. Also it looks like snowfall will be sparse during this period.

So my prediction that belongs to me is that SWE and SCE will continue to reduce strongly, though perhaps at a lower rate than in recent days.
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bbr2314

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #325 on: March 20, 2019, 09:32:27 AM »
WOW!



NW Canada is now bleeding severely red.


Klondike Kat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #326 on: March 20, 2019, 12:19:41 PM »
Wow is right.  IF that trend continues, we may be in for some major spring floods.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #327 on: March 20, 2019, 07:08:16 PM »
Not so long ago I posted a joking remark about N America snow melting from the North.
Nature gets the last laugh ?

https://www.wunderground.com/news/news/weather/news/2019-03-20-march-record-warmth-alaska-canada-seattle

70s in Alaska, Northern Canada, Washington State Smash All-Time March Warm Records Before Winter Ends

Quote
All-time March record highs were smashed in parts of Alaska, western Canada and Washington State in an end-of-winter warm spell that sent temperatures soaring to heights never seen this time of year so far north.

Tuesday's high in Klawock, Alaska, about 200 miles south-southeast of Juneau, topped out at 70 degrees. While that wasn't a March record there, it was the earliest in the year any Alaska location had reached 70 degrees by a whopping 12 days, according to Alaska-based climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider. Five other Alaska locations did tie or set new all-time March warmth records this week.

Sitka topped their previous March record with a high Monday of 62 degrees, then shattered it Tuesday soaring to 67 degrees. Their average high this time of year is only 43 degrees.
Annette tied their all-time March record, set just one year ago, both Monday and Tuesday, reaching 65 degrees. Other March records were set in Eagle (55 degrees), Petersburg (63 degrees) and Yakutat (60 degrees). Average highs this time of year in the town of Eagle, in Alaska's interior near the Canadian border, are only in the low to mid-20s.

Canada, Oh!
The warmth extended into western and northern Canada in places you'd usually expect to be ice- or snow-covered in late March.

Yohin Lake, less than 400 miles from the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories, soared to 21.8 degrees Celsius (about 71 degrees Fahrenheit) Tuesday, the first time on record a location in the Northwest Territories warmed to at least 20 degrees Celsius. Neither Denver, nor Kansas City, had yet to reach 70 degrees in 2019.

This was just one of 10 locations in northwest Canada smashing new March records, according to Patrick Duplessis, a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Duplessis mapped monthly records set Sunday, Monday and again Tuesday. The town of Norman Wells, also in the Northwest Territories, crushed its previous March record on three straight days.

Farther south, Tofino, British Columbia, also crushed a March record Tuesday, soaring to 24.5 degrees Celsius (about 76 degrees Fahrenheit). Weather Network digital meteorologist Tyler Hamilton illustrated what an outlier this warmth on Vancouver Island was. It appeared this would have also set an April all-time high, there.

This warm spell took a toll on the snowpack,

80s in Washington
After shivering through February, this warm spell is also rewriting the record books in parts of Washington state.

Seattle soared to 79 degrees Tuesday, not only an all-time March high in records since 1894, but also for any day in the five-month stretch from November through March, according to the National Weather Service.

If that wasn't impressive, Seattle also set its record warmest daily low temperature not just for March, but also April, barely dipping below 60 degrees Tuesday.

Quillayute, Washington, soared to 81 degrees Tuesday, also a March record, and 13 days earlier than their previous record earliest-in-year 80-degree high (April 1, 1987). This was 30 degrees above their average high near the spring equinox.

Typically rainy Quillayute – near the western tip of the Olympic Peninsula – reached 81 degrees this year ahead of both Atlanta and Dallas-Ft. Worth, which had only hit 80 degrees so far, both in February.

Just down the coast, Hoquiam, Washington, also set an all-time March record, soaring to 79 degrees Tuesday.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #328 on: March 22, 2019, 10:41:16 AM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 21 March

Here is SCE and SWE for North America (NA). To my surprise decline remains very steep. I was expecting the pace of melt to reduce as the floods and precipitation declined. Wrong again.

It looks like North America will be a bit dryer and warmth will be heading North and heading East especially from the Pacific Coast over the next 10 days, with some really warm days.

So the only question is how quickly SCE and SWE will reduce in North America from now on? The last images show min and max temps for the next 5 days. Daytime temperatures are much higher, so melt will reach to much higher latitudes . Also it looks like snowfall will be sparse during this period.

So my prediction that belongs to me is that SWE and SCE will continue to reduce strongly, though perhaps at a lower rate than in recent days.

Eurasia continues to be a poster child for the climate models,  average SCE as the snowline heads north as the years go by and now steeply declining as the spring approaches. Also SWE in decline.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #329 on: March 23, 2019, 11:17:41 AM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 22 March

SCE and SWE for North America (NA). To my surprise decline remains very steep or even steeper.To lose about 20% of the accumulated snow mass in about one week is an event. Both SCE and SWE are now less than +1SD above average, i.e. within "normal" variation from the average. 
 
SCE and SWE for Eurasia which continues to be a poster child for the climate models  Average SCE as the spring moves north and SWE in decline at just +1SD.

The last 2 images show minimum and maximum temperatures over the next 10 days. I just added them to show the possibility of cold or warmth prevailing during spring. I am betting on warmth for the rest of March.
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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #330 on: March 25, 2019, 02:23:44 PM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current as at 22 March

North America snow melt continues to power on. I am still betting on continuation  for the rest of March.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #331 on: March 25, 2019, 11:03:15 PM »
And so mother nature demonstrates yet again that snow melts when the weather warms.

I do believe this pattern of early, very heavy snow falls with large positive anomalies will continue as a result of moisture loading in the atmosphere and mid latitude atmospheric intrusions into the northern latitudes. That said, rapid melt will continue to be a feature as the earth warms.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #332 on: March 26, 2019, 08:05:05 AM »
I do believe this pattern of early, very heavy snow falls with large positive anomalies will continue as a result of moisture loading in the atmosphere and mid latitude atmospheric intrusions into the northern latitudes. That said, rapid melt will continue to be a feature as the earth warms.

I agree. Obviously. Snow extent in the next years will probably be lower and lower while SWE might still hit new highs...

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #333 on: March 26, 2019, 12:54:51 PM »
I do believe this pattern of early, very heavy snow falls with large positive anomalies will continue as a result of moisture loading in the atmosphere and mid latitude atmospheric intrusions into the northern latitudes. That said, rapid melt will continue to be a feature as the earth warms.

I agree. Obviously. Snow extent in the next years will probably be lower and lower while SWE might still hit new highs...

That is what I would expect.  However, the increased extent in recent years has me re-thinking that expectation.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #334 on: March 31, 2019, 11:11:27 AM »
keeping an eye on progress of snow cover is possible via post 325 as it is updating daily .. both graph and map .. b.c.
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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #335 on: March 31, 2019, 01:58:13 PM »
I suspect that the nosedive will take a short reprieve, as colder temperatures and recent snowfall will stem the decline.

Alexander555

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #336 on: March 31, 2019, 04:46:37 PM »
That's like a month faster than last year.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #337 on: April 01, 2019, 01:07:17 PM »
I suspect that the nosedive will take a short reprieve, as colder temperatures and recent snowfall will stem the decline.

And a short reprieve it is (see 1st image).

All Eurasia and North America SCE and SWE now within the +1 SD band. The real legacy of the extreme snow fall in North America seems to me to be the floods expected to roll down the Mississippi / Missouri river basin over the next two months. Also the snow cover map shows the persistent East West temperature contrast .

Looking ahead the temperature anomalies look to be in favour of above average snow melt especially in Eurasia. The one cold spot - Hudson bay and Quebec - persists.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #338 on: April 01, 2019, 01:19:05 PM »
Another indication for an early rather than a late snow melt in N America from
https://weather.gc.ca/saisons/prob_e.html
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Tealight

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #339 on: April 01, 2019, 07:06:32 PM »
NOAA snow cover is finally showing heavy losses in western Canada. The southern Rockies however are still snow covered.

Klondike Kat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #340 on: April 01, 2019, 07:16:52 PM »
Many of the ski resorts in the Rockies have pushed their season ending closing date back by as much as a month, due to the heavy snowfall this winter.  Many Colorado resorts experienced their snowiest March on record.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #341 on: April 01, 2019, 11:03:44 PM »
Many of the ski resorts in the Rockies have pushed their season ending closing date back by as much as a month, due to the heavy snowfall this winter.  Many Colorado resorts experienced their snowiest March on record.

Very good news indeed as the heavy snow will result in full reservoirs this summer.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #342 on: April 03, 2019, 03:22:15 PM »
Many of the ski resorts in the Rockies have pushed their season ending closing date back by as much as a month, due to the heavy snowfall this winter.  Many Colorado resorts experienced their snowiest March on record.

Very good news indeed as the heavy snow will result in full reservoirs this summer.
I believe the main reservoir is the snowpack itself. Early melt would mean most of the snow melt will end in the ocean. A slow late melt will keep the water flowing throughout the dry summer.

At the moment in the West snow is disappearing fast. Wunderground.com suggest April just a bit warm for the rest of April. NOAA saying about the same for the 3 months April to June.
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Klondike Kat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #343 on: April 03, 2019, 05:14:06 PM »
It that holds true, then the Pacific northwest would experience an early melt.  The bulk of the Rockies appear in the average category, becoming below as one heads east and above as one heads west.  The snow melt into the Heartland is all average or below, so the heavy winter snows may give the rivers flowing well into the summer - especially if the cool temperatures persist.

Niall Dollard

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #344 on: April 03, 2019, 09:30:30 PM »
Rutgers reported a nh snow cover extent of 39.48 million km2 for March.

That is a slightly negative anomaly (-0.65).

Cover was above in the USA and central China. Below normal in Europe, Kazakhstan and NE China. 

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #345 on: April 04, 2019, 04:39:17 AM »
The northern hemisphere snowcover looks bad.  The most early melt since 2016.  I'm not even talking about extent.  Just look at the shades of white and how much grey and brown is popping out already.  Southwestern Alaska looks really bad.  Would not be surprised if the Kuskokwim and Yukon have record early ice breakups.  April 20th is the current record for the Kuskokwim.  Look at the surrounding areas on worldview.

Great Plains look bad.  The Baltic looks bad.  Eurasia looks bad.  A lot of extra sun getting soaked up. 

The differences with 2018 are stark.  Just compare Southwest Alaska.  The big lakes there were completely iced over at this point in 2018.  Look at them now.  Crazy.  I sense melting momentum. 

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #346 on: April 04, 2019, 05:42:47 AM »
The northern hemisphere snowcover looks bad.  The most early melt since 2016.  I'm not even talking about extent.  Just look at the shades of white and how much grey and brown is popping out already.  Southwestern Alaska looks really bad.  Would not be surprised if the Kuskokwim and Yukon have record early ice breakups.  April 20th is the current record for the Kuskokwim.  Look at the surrounding areas on worldview.

Great Plains look bad.  The Baltic looks bad.  Eurasia looks bad.  A lot of extra sun getting soaked up. 

The differences with 2018 are stark.  Just compare Southwest Alaska.  The big lakes there were completely iced over at this point in 2018.  Look at them now.  Crazy.  I sense melting momentum.
I strongly agree. The only holdout is Quebec and parts of Hudson Bay. Everything else is melting extremely quickly and extremely early. The results the past two weeks have been unprecedented. I was big on melt momentum in 2018, if it is any indicator this year, we are in VERY big trouble.

gerontocrat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #347 on: April 06, 2019, 01:43:31 PM »
https://ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current Northern hemisphere snow as at 5th April

Eurasia SCE and SWE is well-behaved, still melting in accordance with the models (in itself unusual). i.e. steady decline with SCE a bit below average and SWE a bit above average.

North America CE and SWE still within the +1 SD band, but in the recent few days there has been a reminder that winter is not yet over, with both increasing a tad. There looks as if at least two major storms will affect the eastern half of North America over the next week. The question is on the balance between snow and rain in the systems. In either case, not so good for the flood outlook.

The real legacy of the extreme snow fall in North America seems to me to be the floods expected to roll down the Mississippi / Missouri river basin over the next two months.
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Klondike Kat

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #348 on: April 06, 2019, 02:25:42 PM »
The latest forecast calls for heavy snow in the west and potential blizzard for the plains.  The storm will then transition to rain as it heads into the Midwest and northeast.  Since warm weather has melted the snow over in many of these places recently, I suspect that the overall coverage will increase with this passing storm.  The jet stream is in place for additional snowfall in the coming weeks.  As you stated, winter is not over yet.

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Re: Northern Hemisphere Winter 2018-2019 Snowcover / Misc Obs
« Reply #349 on: April 06, 2019, 02:41:11 PM »
Climate change will be good for agriculture because the growing season will be lengthened... lol.

It terrifies me to know that the leaders of the world are working under the assumption that because it is getting warmer  in the North, where it is very cold, climate change won't be bad for them.

The changes in the characteristics of seasonality will be much worse than warming.
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.