Jason Box just posted a new blog entry today about snowfall in Greenland during this past winter and the implications it has for the upcoming melt season:
Greenland “snow drought” makes big 2013 melt more likely.
Snowfall over most of the GIS was well below average, especially over parts of western Greenland, where snowfall was only 50% of the average, and a section of the northeastern coast, where snowfall was only 30% or less of the average.
Edit: Taking a second look at the below graph, I'm actually not completely sure how to interpret the numbers. I'm not sure if the numbers in brown indicate percent
below the average or percent
of the average.
Albedo over the GIS (land excluded) from mid-march to anout the last week of April was well below any values observed since 2000.
If you haven't visited
Jason Box's blog before, you should read some of his other posts. His posts are usually very up to date with what is happening, and he will often post information and analysis that would otherwise take several months to be published in a paper. Recently he has only been posting once ever month or two, but that isn't unexpected during the winter; his blog was very active during June-September last year, and will probably be very active during this melt season.