Unusual Weather Pattern Freezes Europe, Shifts Arctic Ice
The cold snap in Europe that has killed more than 600 people and buried communities under record snow cover has had an entirely different impact in the Arctic, which is where you’d normally expect to find frigid weather at this time of year. In parts of the Far North, it has been unusually mild recently, and broad expanses of open water have emerged. This open water has raised questions about whether Arctic sea ice is declining even faster than before.
The open water, located in the Barents and Kara Seas, led one blogger to claim that the developments are “unprecedented” in the satellite era (since 1979), and that the winter buildup of Arctic sea ice had ground to a halt this year — possibly leading to a record low maximum sea ice extent for the winter season.
Sea ice concentration maps for Feb. 11 during the past several years. Arrows in bottom right images point to area of unusually open water. Click on image for a larger version. Credit: Univ. of Bremen/Climate Progress
Neven Acropolis, who writes the Arctic Sea Ice blog, wrote in a guest post for Climate Progress, “I think it’s safe to say that this is unprecedented ever since satellites started monitoring Arctic sea ice in 1979 . . . It’s almost as if the melting season has already started in the Barents and Kara Seas, more than two months earlier than normal.”
That’s not the case, though, according to sea ice expert Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. “I can’t say it’s unprecedented, but it’s certainly not something that we see regularly” during the winter, Meier said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s happened before.”
According to Meier, sea ice tends to be pres...
No, You Weren’t Hallucinating: January was Really Warm
As it does every month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released U.S. weather stats for the month just ended, and the results will come as a huge shock — if you've been hiding in a subterranean cave, at least. For the rest of us, it's not even a bit surprising that January, 2012 is the fourth warmest January since modern recordkeeping began in the late 1800's.
Here in Princeton, where Climate Central has its headquarters, daffodils are poking up out of the ground more than a month before they usually do; the only significant snowfall we've had was the bizarre preseason storm that struck the Northeast at the end of October; and we've yet to see even one of (usually) inevitable cold snaps where temperatures stay in the teens for days at a stretch.
Graphic credit/NOAA
It's largely the same all across the continental U.S., with only Florida and and the State of Washington registering average temperatures. Everywhere else it was either above normal, or, for a huge swath of the country -- the Midwest, Great Plains, Dakotas and Northern Rockies -- much above normal temperatures. (The story was different in Alaska, where several locations had their coldest January on record, and places like Fairbanks and Nome have been in danger of running out of fuel oil. Overall, the average temperature in the Lower 48 was 36.3°F, which is 5.5° higher than the average from 1901-2000.
Average nationwide precipitation was lower than normal too, at 1.85 inches,...
What’s Causing the Deadly Cold in Europe?
The weather pattern responsible for bringing frigid air to Europe, like this heavy snow fall on the Colosseum in Rome, is driven in part by a naturally-occurring pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation.
While the U.S. cruises through winter with a snow drought and above-average temperatures, much of Europe and Eurasia are locked in the grips of a deadly cold air outbreak, with more than 300 people reported dead so far. According to news reports, entire communities in Italy, Bosnia, and Romania have become inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and power outages. According to Sky News, a dam in Bulgaria burst due to the combination of snowmelt and heavy rains, killing four people in a village downstream, and other dams in Southeastern Europe are also being threatened. Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey are at risk for heavy snows during the next few days.
According to U.S. News and World Report, the wintry blitz presents a poorly-timed challenge to European economies, which already are struggling to contain a debt crisis:
"In more robust economic times, the economic effects of bad weather might be nothing more than bump in the road, but in a place already teetering on the brink of recession, the stakes are higher."
"[E]ven relatively limited disruption from snow and freezing conditions could very well be enough to tip the balance towards the economy suffering further contraction in the first quarter of this year, which would put it officially back into recession," writes Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist of IHS Global Insight, in a commentary on the cold snap.
According to Bloomberg News, 93 stations from the Czech Hydrometeorologica...
Rare February Blizzard Rages in Denver
For the millions of Americans who have been wondering where winter is, look no further than Colorado, which has been blasted by 1 to 2 feet of wind-whipped snow during the past 24 hours. The storm responsible for the snow and wind is also causing severe thunderstorms in Texas and Oklahoma, with the threat of tornadoes Friday. Overnight, heavy snow is expected to fall across Nebraska, including Lincoln, Grand Isle and Omaha, with up to a foot of snow expected.
A snowy Denver neighborhood. Credit: dmooneyham/Instagram.
According to the National Weather Service, Gilpin County, Colorado, has already received 34.5 inches of snow, and 26.5 inches have fallen in Ward, Colorado, with 16 inches in Boulder, a foot in Denver, and 18 inches at Sand Creek Reservoir in Wyoming.
While snow in Colorado isn't unusual, it's rare for Denver and eastern Colorado to get a storm of this magnitude during February. Most of Denver's snow comes during the fall and spring, and this storm may break records for the biggest February snowstorm.
To make the all-time top 10 list of storms in Denver, however, more than 22.1 inches would need to fall, which doesn't appear likely. According to the Associated Press, the city's heaviest snowfall on record was 45.7 inches, recorded in 1913.
The storm has forced the closure of large parts of Interstate 70 between eastern Colorado and Denver, and road conditions will worsen in Nebraska as the snow moves in. The storm has also hampered air travel at Denver International Airport, and may have pl...
Extreme Cold Proves Deadly in Europe
While much of the U.S. has had a mild winter this year, record cold and snow are being blamed for dozens of deaths in Europe. According to the Associated Press, snow has fallen as far south as the Adriatic Sea, and the Black Sea has frozen along the Romanian coast. In Ukraine, temperatures dipped to the -20s°F, killing more than 40 people, many of them homeless, and hospitalizing hundreds more with hypothermia.
A southerly plunge in the jet stream is allowing Arctic air to flow into Europe and Asia, where snow cover is above average. During the past few winters, weather patterns in the Arctic played a key role in bringing cold and snowy conditions to the U.S. and Europe. This winter, however, weather patterns have set up differently, and the U.S. has been protected from harsh winter weather. In fact, the only the only state that has experienced a prolonged period of unusual cold and snow so far this winter is Alaska, where temperatures dipped all the way to -65°F at the end of January.
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