NCAR - Record-Smashing Canadian Arctic Warmth - Largest Monthly Anomaly 37.8F Above Historic Average

[hatrack]

EDIT

Just how mild has it been? The map at right shows departures from average surface temperatures for the period from 17 December 2010 to 15 January 2011, as calculated by NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory. The blue blip along the southeast U.S. coast indicates readings between 3°C and 6°C (5.4–10.8°F) below average for the 30-day period as a whole. That’s noteworthy—and in fact, it was the coldest December in more than a century of record-keeping across south Florida (see PDF summary). Blue also shows up across the UK, where December averaged 5.2°C (9.4°F) below normal.

What really jumps out, though, is a blob of green, yellow, orange, and red covering a major swath of northern and eastern Canada. The largest anomalies here exceed 21°C (37.8°F) above average, which are very large values to be sustained for an entire month.

To put this picture into even sharper focus, let’s take a look at Coral Harbour, located at the northwest corner of Hudson Bay in the province of Nunavut. On a typical mid-January day, the town drops to a low of –34°C (–29.2°F) and reaches a high of just -26°C (–14.8°F). Compare that to what Coral Harbour actually experienced in the first twelve days of January 2011, as reported by Environment Canada (see table at left).

* After New Year’s Day, the town went 11 days without getting down to its average daily high.
* On the 6th of the month, the low temperature was –3.7°C (25.3°F). That’s a remarkable 30°C (54°F) above average.
* On both the 5th and 6th, Coral Harbor inched above the freezing mark. Before this year, temperatures above 0°C (32°F) had never been recorded in the entire three months of January, February, and March.

The extremes have been just as impressive when you look high in the atmosphere above these areas. Typically the midpoint of the atmosphere’s mass—the 500-millibar (500 hPa) level—rests around 5 kilometers (3 miles) above sea level during the Arctic midwinter. In mid-December, a vast bubble of high pressure formed in the vicinity of Greenland. At the center of this high, the 500-mb surface rose to more than 5.8 kilometers, a sign of remarkably mild air below. Stu Ostro (The Weather Channel) found that this was the most extreme 500-mb anomaly anywhere on the planet in weather analyses dating back to 1948. Details are at the conclusion of Ostro’s year-end blog post. Farther west, a separate monster high developed over Alaska last week. According to Richard Thoman (National Weather Service, Fairbanks), the 500-mb height over both Nome and Kotzebue rose to 582 decameters (5.82 km). That’s not only a January record: those are the highest values ever observed at those points outside of June, July, and August.

EDIT

http://www2.ucar.edu/currents/cold-comfort-canadas-record-smashing-mildness

[phantom power]

1. That's a lot.

[Bragi]

2. Facts don't matter

The right wing do-nothings paid by the carbon industry have won the propaganda war, and there is now no intention whatsoever among leaders of democratic countries (including Obama) to do anything serious about climate change.

There will eventually have to be trillions spent coping with the results of our inaction (more extreme weather events, famines, wars, mass migrations etc.) but this doesn't matter right now.

Because of our corrupt and non-responsive economic and political systems, we cannot expect any action to stop what's coming. Sensible people would be wise to band together to help each other through the worst of what is coming, but that's about all one can advise at this point.

But on the upside, unlike us, planet earth will certainly survive. And all the crap we buy that we don't need will continue to be available to us, though these things will get pricier, of course.

Finally, as as boomer, I would like to take this moment to offer my condolences to all for our regrettably-successful species-extinction geo-redesign effort, especially to anyone younger than about 40, since you will likely live to experience the worst of it.

We're truly sorry about the whole coming environmental collapse thing. I know that means a lot to you.

[hatrack]

4. I don't usually quote Kunstler, though I find him entertaining.

However, he did sum up the overall outlook quite neatly a few years back:

"We'll keep on doing what we do until we can't, and then we won't."

[phantom power]

3. and another thing...

Jesus fucking Christ, a +37.8F anomaly?

[hatrack]

5. Yeah, that kind of, uh, stood out for me as well . . .

:wtf:

[GliderGuider]

6. Holy crap! A +37.8 anomaly?

We just had one night here in Ottawa when the low dipped to -29C (another one may be coming), the rest of the winter has been mild. Not as mild as last year, but somewhat above seasonal averages.

[jpak]

7. deniers suck

yup!

[XemaSab]

8. Hudson is freezing, but there's only a couple weeks before the melt

Baffin is just terrible.

ETA: Here's the overall scenario:



Looking at this, one word comes to mind: AIRBALL! :o

[Bigmack]

9. OMG!!!! This is INCREDIBLE!

Not that the village idiots that govern this country will EVEN notice. All they'll notice is the snow and ice on our east coast. SCARY! Ms Bigmack

[pscot]

10. My doctor assures me

that these sort of weather anomalies have always been with us, so there's nothing to worry about. He read it in time magazine.

[Systematic Chaos]

11. But do they have electric boots and mohair suits?

:shrug: