ORH_wxman

Yeah of course....sometimes we run incredibly lucky too. ORH literally had 17 consecutive winters of average or better snowfall between '55-'56 and '71-72....simple regression and statistics would've said after like 4 or 5 of them we were way overdue for a ratter, but we waited another 12 years before it happened in '72-'73. We were eventually "repaid" during the 1979-1992 sadastic torture ritual for snow lovers in New England. This is proof that we do regress given enough time, but 5 years is nothing....even if at the time, it was unprecedented. One last example....ORH had never had more than 2 seasons in a row failing to get a 10" snowstorm until it happened in 1988-89 through 1990-91....so you would have thought there is no way it would happen again after an unprecedented 3-in-a-row, right? Wrong....we got a 4th consecutive winter that failed to have a 10" snowfall in 1991-92. As for this winter...if we can get a west-based El Nino, even if strong, I would strongly bet against another shit snowfall winter....but all bets are off if it's a canonical strong El Nino.

I don't feel like we've had an unusual dearth of high pressure to the north in recent years outside of last year. If anything, we probably got too many of them compared to climo for many years during the aughts through mid-2010s. Seriously....how many SWFE warning events on would-be lakes cutters did we get in those years? Probably more than the previous 25 years combined. For the period circa 2019-2022 I wasn't noticing a lot of rainers with -3C 850 temps....maybe the occasional one like we get every year but not a parade of them like last year. Maybe it's a new paradigm, but I'd want to see years worth of data supporting it outside of one torturous winter.

Last winter had one of the most consistent large delta-Ts between mid-levels and the low levels I can remember....just storm after storm after storm where you'd have like -4C 850 temps and places like ORH were struggling to accumulate snow. It was ridiculous. Typically that might happen like once per winter where you have some torch 925-950 BL flow off the water from the southeast and your snow level sits up near 2k or something, but last winter it seems to happen all the time. We could not buy a low level high pressure in a decent spot to save our lives. We didn't even need fresh arctic highs, just something that funnels some polar dewpoints into the airmass and gives you 29F snow. We couldn't even get that.

Yeah I don't see a reason to think it's going to be above average yet more than below average....the previous 5 winters aren't really relevant to affecting the 2023-24 winter. Flipping heads 5 times in a row is pretty rare, but it doesn't mean you have a better shot at tails on the 6th flip. But you get enough trials, it eventually evens out....like it wouldn't be surprising if we went on a run of like 6 out of 8 winters being good (or better) soon. But it could also wait until the 2030s to do that....the stench of the 1980s and early 1990s didn't really get paid back fully until the 2000s/early 2010s....despite seeing some monster winters like '92-'93 or '95-'96 right after that period. We still saw plenty of ugly winters too mixed in like '94-95 and the '97-'00 period. We consistently started getting better winters in the 2000s surrounded by the occasional ratter ('01-'02, '11-'12, etc).

Update: NSIDC SIA stood at 8.31 million sq km as of 6/20/2023. Here's where other years stand now: 2022: +80k 2021: -500k 2020: -640k 2019 -390k 2018 +170k 2017: +30k 2016: -340k 2015: -90k 2014: Tied 2013: +140k 2012: -660k 2011: -250k 2010: -370k 2009: +790k 2008: +150k 2007: -530k We've picked up the pace of losses in the past 3 days. We're still on the slow side but not quite as much as a few days ago. There's been some solid losses in the Beaufort/CAA during that time, but the next few days look quite cold there so we may see it slow again...but then it's possible another surge of warmth could advect in for this later weekend and early next week.

Update: On 6/16, NSIDC SIA stood at 8.85 million sq km. This was actually a slight increase from 6/15 as the slow June continues. Here’s how other years compared on the same date: 2022: -200k 2021: -520k 2020: -610k 2019: -720k 2018: -150k 2017: -80k 2016: -530k 2015: -270k 2014: -50k 2013: -90k 2012: -1.0 million (-1000k) 2011: -530k 2010: -390k 2009: +470k 2008: -20k 2007: -370k

Scooter's gone off the deep end with Kevin....most normal people like 70s and lower dews unless maybe you are having a pool or beach day. Even on this forum it's true....I remember I ran a poll on this and overwhelmingly people voted against heat and humidity. I don't mind a few mini-heat waves mixed in....they are pretty classic summer feel. Just don't give us DC/Philly weather where it's weeks straight of 90F and humid.

First update of the season comparing other years....I'll try to update this fairly frequently until the end of the month when we can make a skilled prediction on the minimum. On 6/15, daily NSIDC area was at 8.82 million sq km, here's where other years were compared at the same time: 2022: -100k 2021: -190k 2020: -320k 2019: -560k 2018: +40k 2017: +10k 2016: -380k 2015: -150k 2014: -20k 2013: +90k 2012: -830k 2011: -300k 2010: -310k 2009: +560k 2008: +110k 2007: -240k You can see we're off to a slow start in the post-2007 context as most years were lower by this point. Model guidance doesn't really show anything extreme in the next week or so. There's a weak high over a chunk of the pacific side of the basin right now that is causing some sfc melt, but cooler conditions are forecasted to sweep in over the next few days. There's signs of a weak dipole trying to develop later next week, but you'd like to see it more pronounced to really get the momentum going after a slow start.

Yeah usually they will just say grapefruit sized for that 4.5” diameter range. Lol

I'd be more interested in OHC and T-depth numbers rather than SSTs out there since a little upwelling can sometimes wipe out big + anomalies within days.

Take 2009-10 with slightly less exotic blocking and you probably have a blockbuster winter here (and quite a bit colder too)

Gonna be warmer up in interior Labrador than it is here next week.

You really need a 70N graph as 80N is a pretty small area around the pole. 2015 was pretty warm outside of that region....this year has been less so. We've seen decent area losses the past week but a huge percentage of them have come from Hudson Bay and other peripheral seas. The main arctic basin is off to a slow start this melt season, so I'm not seeing much potential for a top 3 melt season unless it turns around quickly. I'll start tracking the numbers more closely in a couple days....but even right now, we're trailing 2012 by around 700k on area loss.

Wouldn't take much updraft for hail today with the freezing level sitting at 775mb.

This dogshit is starting to remind me of 2009 when I keep seeing ULLs and rain events out in the extended.

Why does a blue ocean event have to be permanent? If GHGs eventually come down, the ice would respond just like it did after previous blue ocean events during the peak of the Holocene. Spraying a bunch of sulfates into the arctic atmosphere sounds like a really bad idea.

Funny you posted this earlier this morning and then the 12z guidance today comes out and is noticeably lower with heights over the arctic in the D7-10 timeframe. So maybe there is something to the MJO idea you were touting. This melt season frankly looks kind of boring so far....but again, things could change quickly if the 2nd half of June has prime conditions for ice loss. The slow start still makes record territory unlikely even should the pattern flip later in June. Those big melt years like 2007/2012/2016/2020 all had significantly above average melt ponding starting up by now.

Almost time to start tracking NSIDC area....it's still a bit early right now, but by 6/15, it will really be worth tracking much closer. I don't see any drastic conditions developing at the moment. Daily area is tracking a bit above the 2010s average, and the forecast looks fairly benign up there for the next week. We'll want to see that change to a more defined dipole setup (high pressure on the North American side with low pressure on the Asian side) if we're going to even entertain the possibility of a new record this year. Things can change though with relatively little warning as bluewave stated above on how unreliable the arctic forecasts are once past 4-6 days. So we'll monitor the guidance and see if anything interesting happens. Some of the medium range guidance beyond D8 is trying to retrograde a block into Greenland and possibly further northwest which would be a stronger melt setup if that block can make it back into the arctic basin....but we've seen a few false alarms already early in this melt season.

Light NE wind....downsloping?

Gotta love 546 thicknesses in June this weekend.... Nice summer of yore day today though in the meantime....DPs keeping it tolerable though.

Indigo bunting. They are more common further southwest pf New England even though we do get them here...esp through lower midwest/OH valley/TN valley/lower MS valley. Given it's not super common in New England (esp NNE), it's definitely a good sighting at the feeder.

An item/entity is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it.

Blue Jays and Robins frequently toss Cowbird eggs out of their nests too. Cowbirds seems to love Warbler nests....though the Yellow Warbler in specific sometimes just build another layer of nest over the Cowbird eggs....but the other warblers rarely do this. Agreed on not touching Cowbird eggs. I've heard of so many stories of birds abandoning their nest when someone tried to "Help" out and remove the Cowbird eggs. I never read of a great explanation, but one of the ones that make the most sense is that apparently the birds will monitor the mass of their eggs and if they change substantially, they just abandon the nest and start a new one. Hopefully the Phoebe doesn't do this.

Got down to 32F here but no frost...

This wasn't one of those really weak ULLS with like 2 closed geopotential height lines that you sometimes can have fall apart a bit as you get closer or not have as much instability. This was pretty deep, cold, and advertised pretty well in advance. Maybe we can flip the pattern toward mid-month.