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Northern Hemisphere Snowcover


donsutherland1

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This year is doing very well right now...the last year that seemed to be this robust at this point was 2006 (didn't turn out so well for winter though) followed by 2002.

2009 absolutely exploded though between now and the end of the month. At this point though, 2009 wasn't at the levels of this year...but the next week or so it went gangbusters. Really after 10/22/09.

This year looks like it could go ganbusters too over the next 10 days, but we'll just have to wait and see. 2009 was pretty special in that regard...this year's pattern looks favorable, but it doesn't guarantee it will go nuts.

Cool, thanks. 2006-07 was a great winter here. ;)

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It was an epic dud for most on this board. I never like seeing anything happening this year being compared to 2001, 2006, or 2007 :lol:

Yeah, I know. But I don't think it ever hurts anything to see rapid snowcover growth at this time. Obviously a lot of other factors come into play for the following winter.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I thought this blog post on Tamino's page would put some good perspective on the snow situation.

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/extreme-denial/

WUWT regular “just the facts” is equally eager to trivialize trends in snow cover:

While none of the Snow plots offers a global perspective, when looking at the Northern Hemisphere, there appears to have been a slight increase in Snowcover and Winter Snow Extent, a decrease in Spring Snow Extent and no change in Fall Snow Extent over the historical record.

That “slight increase” in winter snow cover is not statistically significant:

winter.jpg?t=1352981018

The number at the top (6) is the estimated trend rate in thousands of km^2 per year, while the number in parentheses (15) is the standard error of the trend estimate. The trend isn’t even close to being significant. The trend in fall snow cover is flat as a pancake:

fall.jpg?t=1352981272

But the trend in spring snow decline is definitely significant:

spring.jpg?t=1352981309

What WUWT regular “just the facts” doesn’t show is snow cover data for summer. That’s probably because nobody plotted it for him — none of the plots are his own. I’m happy to oblige:

summer.jpg?t=1352981372

This reminds me of the Antarctica vs Arctic stuff back in Sept. The changes are night and day.

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  • 1 month later...

Northern Hemisphere snow cover was the highest for December since records began in 1966.

attachicon.gifnhland12.png

 

This makes sense given how much of  head start things are off too in the upper lats and upper mid lats.

 

the big test will come with Spring and if this can be a negative feedback at all to slow the eradication process and cool off the N.H. a bit during Spring when radiative forcing continues to get stronger.

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Northern Hemisphere snow cover was the highest for December since records began in 1966.

attachicon.gifnhland12.png

 

Back a few years ago like 2006-2008 or so.  Speculation was more robust that winter snow cover would increase, even snow depth in places and maybe it would be a negative feedback.  But so far it seems between it's peak and Spring it get's overwhelmed completely. 

 

I still think there is a shot, maybe we haven't seen the actual depth ramp up quite as far as it will with this idea and it's impact not met yet.

 

This year will be interesting because it could again go from record high to record low by June.

 

 

 

6a0133f03a1e37970b017ee7014c66970d-.png?

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 I have read that the snow cover on the sea ice is counted which would explain why the snowcover

has been so low in the summer. This is false then. thanks for clearing this up. 

 

They include ice as snow cover on the FSU site but not the Rutgers data which is what NCDC uses.

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