There have been a number of indications that January 2008 has been an exceptional month for winter weather in not only North America, but the entire Northern Hemisphere.
We’ve had anecdotal evidence of odd weather in the form of wire reports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and China where record setting cold and snow has been felt with intensity not seen for 30-100 years, depending on the region.
From our remote sensing groups, we have reports of significant negative anomalies in both the RSS and UAH global satellite data for the lower troposphere. The there’s NOAA’s announcement that January 2008, was below 20th century averages, plus news that Arctic sea ice has quickly recovered from the record low extent of Summer 2007. Finally, there’s the massive La Nina said to be the driver of all this but may be a harbinger of a more permanent phase shift according to veteran forecaster Joe Bastardi.
Now to add to this, we have images and reports from NOAA and Rutgers University of large anomalies of snow cover extent for the northern hemisphere in January 2008.
First lets start with NOAA’s Snow and Ice chart for January 31st, 2008
Click image to see animated snow/ice cover. Java required
Next let us look at the Rutgers Global Snow Lab map of the Northern Hemisphere for January 2008. Note the key at the bottom of the image indicating coverage by percent.
Here is how the map above breaks down by area:
Northern Hemisphere: 50.13 million sq. km
Eurasia: 32.30 million sq. km
North America: 17.83 million sq. km
And finally, Rutgers Global Snow Lab has an anomaly graph:
January 2008 had the largest areal Northern Hemisphere snow cover for the period of 1966-2008, just slightly larger than the previous largest anomaly of January, 1984.
Here are the rankings for the top 10 months, ranked by Northern Hemisphere coverage. January 2008 comes in second to Feburary of 1978.
| Row | ||||||
| 1 | 1978 | 2 | ||||
| 2 | 2008 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 1985 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | 1979 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | 1978 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | 1977 | 1 | ||||
| 7 | 1972 | 2 | ||||
| 8 | 1985 | 2 | ||||
| 9 | 2003 | 2 | ||||
| 10 | 1967 | 1 |
Table above in millions of square kilometers
Yes, we live in interesting times.
(h/t Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr.)
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The mid-atlantic region has not had a lot of snow while the news this morning said that Boston was well above average and New York City well below. Normally I have enough snow to use the snow blower two or three times a year (D.C. area) and this year I haven’t even started it up.
Anytime there is snow on the ground in southern China at 28 degrees N latitude, it is unusual.
Dodo, North by Northwest. 😉
BrianMcL, yes, and silver mines, to!
Anthony (in your reply to Stan Needham), you said:
“1978 was a very close second for snow cover anomaly. That was also the year of the coal strike, remember that? ”
Brutal winters and no coal.
Isn’t that the ideal?
[…] Jan08 Northern Hemisphere snow cover: largest anomaly since 1966 […]
As a layman, my question would be; why doesn’t such extensive snow coverage cause an ice age, if the “climate” is so sensitive? Likewise, why doesn’t seasonal warming cause the supposed runaway greenhouse effect? Again, if the climate is so sensitive, and feedbacks are mostly positive, then a jump of 20 degrees average temperature due to seasonal changes should cause all those feedbacks to suddenly fly out of control. Since they don’t, how can 1 or 2 degrees supposedly from CO2 cause those feedbacks to fly out of control as we’re being told?
[…] Jan ’08 second coldest in 15 years Interesting that January 2008 also had the largest areal Northern Hemisphere snow cover since […]
to “Dodo”- The Topa Topa Mountains are in the central part of Ventura County, which is between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties to the west and east, respectively, and Kern County to the north, in southern California, USA.
Dodo,
“Ojai” is a unique place name identifier which is why it was included although I’m nearly positive our gracious host knows the Topa Topas personally. Picture. This is a coastal range and probably illustrates the effects of La Niña. There is still snow as of Feb 11th.
[…] announcement. He has a great presentation of the Northern Hemisphere snow cover of that January in his blog here. href=”http://www.icecap.us/” mce_href=”http://www.icecap.us/”>ICECAP […]
Ojai: BEAUTIFUL area. Spent 3 months in Camarillo last year on a consulting gig. Robert, send me some Sangiovese from Old Creek Ranch winery please! 🙂
Oh, to stay on topic here, don’t you guys know global warming can also mean cooling. Duh!
🙂
[…] cooler temperatures seen in January 2008, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, which has seen record amounts of snow coverage extent as well as new record low surface temperatures in many […]
[…] anschauliche Darstellung der Ausdehnung der Schneebedeckung der gesamten nördlichen Hemisphäre in seinem Blog. ICECAP (International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project) hat ebenfalls über […]
[…] Northeast Ohio braces for yet another winter storm, a new analysis shows that snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is greater than at any time since 1966. In addition, […]
Global warming means more vapor in the air in some modeling. Thus the increase in snow. This MIGHT mean larger snowfields for the glaciers for a while too until temps reach such a point after which snow in the coldest latitudes can’t stick any more.
but no, there is not necessarily an inherent contradiction of snow and global warming. Warming does not mean that Greenland will become the Sahara, only that at the poles you’ll see the results first due to colder objects and land masses heating faster than the southern latitudes.
Sorry gang. enjoy the snow. But we’re not off the hook just yet just becase kids are playing with more snowmen than ever in cold places like New York.
Meanwhile down here in SC people are washing cars in short sleeves.
I have a friend who recently explained that global warming has five possible results. First, wetter and colder than normal. Second, wetter and warmer than normal. Third, dryer and colder than normal. Fourth, dryer and warmer than normal. And fifth, normal. Yep, I guess she’s right. WE are definitely causing global warming.
March 26, 2008
Hi! I’m new here but maybe you can comment on this. I live in Canada, Qc. I have relatives in Quebec city and I cannot remember a year since 1960 they had as much snow. I have some reference over there and I can say that they had a very fast start in december and that it is still snowing regularly and still very cold (-16C yesterday morning). I heard that they are about to beat a record standing since 1867 or so.
I read here that the Artic ice cover would have noticably recover from 2007 summer. Well, …how’s that fitting with an “obvious” climate global warming?
I look for snow cover stats for Quebec city on the Internet and even on Environment Canada site could not find clear results. Where can I find this ? I also looked for other sites in Canada and was surprised to see that for many of them, stats don’t go back farther than 1940 or so … I mean, do we have valid data to evaluate climate change …?
Have a good day
Why don’t you do a story on the new weekly record low just set? These are all the week nine snow coverage extents since 1967. Data courtesy of Rutgers University. http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/table_area.php?ui_set=0&ui_sort=0
2008 38.63
2007 46.70
2006 43.41
2005 44.67
2004 43.45
2003 47.10
2002 43.13
2001 44.16
2000 41.73
1999 44.24
1998 42.47
1997 43.00
1996 44.62
1995 41.67
1994 42.09
1993 46.49
1992 41.54
1991 44.62
1990 39.79
1989 43.37
1988 42.75
1987 47.44
1986 45.38
1985 46.75
1984 44.21
1983 43.87
1982 44.90
1981 43.01
1980 46.83
1979 47.77
1978 48.34
1977 43.93
1976 43.89
1975 43.16
1974 43.23
1973 43.34
1972 42.62
1971 46.55
1970 43.70
1969 45.79
1968 42.55
1967 47.40
[…] And of course, the fact that the ENTIRE, Northern Hemisphere has had the most snowfall since 1966, t… So what you’re saying, is I’m just supposed to ignore all this because you guys are smarter than me, and your computer models are like God, they’re infallible and can’t be mistaken, so I should just STFU and go home. I need to stop reading, and stop using my brain to figure out that something doesn’t smell right and just let congress pass the biggest tax increase in history in the form of a Carbon Cap and Trade system, because it’s all for my benefit, it’s not about money it’s about saving the world right. Another interesting little tidbit, I went to NOAA’s site and plugged in the earliest date that I could up until today. I don’t know where you got YOUR chart from, but this is from the governments Record Keeping Database. I’ve posted here before MANY pictures of instances where temperature monitoring stations were being placed on top of commercial Air Conditioning units and other heat Islands that were exacerbating the reporting problem, and they’ve finally acknowledged a lot of these abuses and started to clean up their data. Using a 5 year Trend line makes the situation look at lot worse than what it actually is. Truth is, the trend line shows about a 1 degree rise in 100 years, which is just about normal and has been documented to have happened many, many, many times before during the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age and the year without a summer in the early 1800’s. (Truth be told these periods have had as much as a 3 degree variation in half the time, but whatever) Also, why did the trend line go DOWN between the 1930’s and the 1970’s when we had our BIGGEST increases in Carbon Output? (except for that ONE year, that sticks out like a sore thumb) Why you guys are so eager to go back to North America being covered by a Sheet of 50′ of Ice is beyond me. I mean that IS a natural cycle right? You would think you would welcome the warming. OK, enough lallygagging, what is the Point? The point is, why are we seeing all these cold temperatures while we’ve MASSIVELY increased carbon output. Why has the Carbon output not produced MORE warming over the past decade? Why have 2007 and 2008 (so far) been some of the Coldest years on record in so many areas while Carbon is going up, up, up? __________________ http://www.nosocialism.com ———————————————– America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton – Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over – Sounds Republican). […]
[…] and Of Course, The Fact That The Entire, Northern Hemisphere Has Had The Most Snowfall Since 1966, T… noaa’s Site And Plugged In The Earliest Date That I Could Up Until Today. I Don’t Know Where You Got Your Chart From, But This Is From The Governments Record Keeping Database. Exposed Once Again With Spin And Political Scientific Data Marketing __________________ Supreme Executive for the I.S.S.F […]