While early autumn snowstorms aren’t uncommon in US weather history, they tend to be quick affairs that melt off quickly in a day or two. This however is a bit different in that we have a significant portion of the northern Midwest plains and northern Rockies are snow covered and it is not quickly dissipating, in fact it is increasing. Since October 10th the coverage has increased from 13.2% of the USA covered by snow.
This map below is from NOAA’s NOHRSC National Snow Analysis page.
Here is the accompanying table and discussion:
October 13, 2009
| Area Covered By Snow: | 19.9% |
| Area Covered Last Month: | 0.0% |
| Snow Depth | |
|---|---|
| Average: | 0.7 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 728.8 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 2.1 in |
| Snow Water Equivalent | |
| Average: | 0.1 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 403.4 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 0.4 in |
By way of comparison, here is the October 13th USA snow cover for the last few years:
2003- .7
2004- .3
2005- 1.7
2006- 3.7
2007- .3
2008-12.7
2009-19.9
What is also interesting is the 6 year trend of snow depth on this date.
2003- 38.2 in
2004-322.6 in
2005-456.9 in
2006-223.2 in
2007-458.1 in
2008-600.6 in
2009-728.8 in
You can watch the snow cover advance in the animation they provide:
Click for animation of the last 72 hours
Weather Summary
A series of potent systems moved across the coterminous U.S. this weekend, and they brought snow to the north and rain to the south. Late last week, heavy rain fell across the south, which continued to aggravate river flooding and keep soils most.
On Friday, up to 1 foot of snow fell at higher elevations in Wyoming, mainly due to upslope flow from a surface low which moved across the Plains. This same system produced up to 1 1/2 feet of snow to mainly Nebraska Friday and Saturday. Lighter amounts – up to 1/2 foot – fell across the southern Dakotas. On Monday, another system produced light snow across the Upper Midwest and western Great Lakes.
Much of the Western snowpack is cold and stable due due to unseasonably cold air temperatures in those areas. Along the southern edge of the snowpack – from southeastern Idaho to southern Wyoming and from southern Nebraska through southern Iowa, warm and melting conditions were present.
A deep, strong offshore system off the West Coast with potent onshore flow will cause widespread heavy rainfall across the northern two-thirds of California. Up to a foot of snow is possible in the high-elevation central Sierra Nevada, but it will be mixed with rain.
The energy of this West Coast system will shift northward and bring moderate rainfall – 1 to 2 inches – to the coastal Northwest and the Cascades on Wednesday and Thursday.
A midlevel trough will develop across the eastern U.S., and a stationary front across the South will be a focus for heavy rainfall through midweek, and this rain will shift to the Middle Atlantic states late this week.
As the West Coast system lifts northward, midlevel ridging will develop progress smartly across the West. Daily maximum temperatures are expected to be above freezing in much of the West by Friday. The ridge will move into the central U.S. by the weekend and bring seasonable temperatures to the Plains and Upper Midwest, causing snowmelt there.
Snow Reports
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h/t to WUWT reader Mike Bryant
Weather isn’t climate, but this Fall sure is starting off to be a douse…brrrr!
On another weather front…
(Reuters) – Wed Oct 14, 2009 – Quiet Atlantic hurricane season a boon for insurers
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE59D2UK20091014
“Thanks to El Nino, the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season has been the quietest in more than a decade, offering a reprieve for residents in the danger zone and a chance for insurance firms to refill depleted coffers.
With the peak of the season — late August to mid-October — now behind, the Atlantic-Caribbean basin has seen just two hurricanes and a total of eight tropical storms.”
“…sea temperatures in the tropical Atlantic are cooler, by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.12 degrees Celsius) on average…”
Yes, we’re in the middle of the hockey stick alright…
and in Poland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8307661.stm
Its the Sun silly
Anthropogenic greenhouse gasses are causing global warming which is causing global cooling. It’s worse than we thought!
Snow in Hawai,
http://www.mlo.noaa.gov/Live/mlocam/mkcam.jpg
Mauna Kea it is ( not Loa :))
With 729 inches maximum snow depth, Glacier National Park may not only be back in business, but may have to expand to boot!
Are you sure this isn’t a typo? — Over 60 feet seems a bit much for any place that isn’t Buffalo!
Patience is all that is required. If the current solar trends continue, the snow in the driveway will be piled so deep, the ice getting so cold, the dog hiding under the furnace, that everyone on planet earth will know that AGW is a hoax, save for Al Gore.
This may be the winter that AGW dies. But don’t think that will stop the politicians from demanding their carbon taxes, no siree.
Why would anyone think the sun didn’t play a major role in earth’s climate? How would the climate have changed when man wasn’t even around.
Another thing to ponder — how do we know the CO2 levels are too high and not too low? And how would we even know?
Funny, I don’t see an Impressive Nino,but the icy fingers of Nina wrapping around his neck….
CodeTech (09:39:28) :
Your car has ESP?!!!
Gotta git me one a dem! Just think, it would be able to foresee accidents and avoid them! Or speeding tickets!
I question their methodologies as they have almost my entire viewing area with snow cover when in fact, none of my viewing area has snow on the ground currently (eastern ND and western MN). Most of my area only had a brief snowfall on Friday night (0.5″ to 1″) that quickly melted Saturday morning. We may briefly get more tonight, but it’s October, it’s not going to last long (half a day).
More important than brief snow is the fact that October is running 9 degrees below average for the first 13 days of the month in Fargo, ND, quite the anomaly in an already cold climate.
A very early-season snowfall is possible across the region from late Thursday into Friday night. The main threat is to the higher-elevations of Central PA.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/ctp/
You guys are just a bunch of mouth breathers, why don’t you guys be quiet and let the professionals handle the situation. The tiny amount of snow reoport here has allready mostly melted, sort of. It is just weather, none of this white stuff matters. NOTHING that has occurred or will occur that invalidates our models. False claims of cold weather put forth by deniers will not change the truth. As a matter of fact just the other day a new GISS station located in rural Yellowstone proved that the planet is getting warmer as the temperature was a constant 100 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, in an effort to appease the hairy knuckle dragging denier crowd we will be moving the official GISS station in Hawaii away from the airport and it’s UHI. The new station located in very rural Kilauea crater is expected to help prove that AGW is occurring faster then expected and that action needs to be taken immediately!!!
Live by the sword, die by the sword:
For the last couple of decades we have had a global warming angle of every bit of bad weather possible:
Bad river floods: Global warming, global warming, global warming…
Hurricane hits: Global warming, global warming, global warming…
Drought: Global warming, global warming, global warming…
A few hot days: Global warming, global warming, global warming
A few wet days: Global… (you get the picture)
Now we have some cold weather, yes just weather. We might, or might not, have a cold winter. C’est la vie. But if we do have a bad winter it will have a disproportionate impact on public and perhaps political perceptions of the truth or falsity of the whole case for AGW.
The % will be back below 10% by the end of the week.
Also, who has a 700″ of snow on the ground with a 400″ water equivalent on Oct 13? That sounds like a glitch.
Yes, indeed!
Time to buy shares in a snowshoe manufacturing company 🙂
If we don’t stop this running away global warming ASAP, we are all going to freeze to death?
This is interesting as it actually shows an increasing rate of second and subsequent year’s snow.
Any data for mountains in the Canadian or Siberian Arctic?
That map is outdated at the least. What little remains of the snow in Minneapolis can only be found on the north side of structures. Snow covered we are not. Last Monday yes, but no longer.
One more:
Central Europe hit by heavy snow
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/central-europe-hit-heavy-snow-3073695
and what’s up with cryosphere today? they are down more often than not.
Lloyd (09:27:20) :
If you don’t know how it works (cooler climate associated with Deep Solar Minimum) then you don’t know when it started working.
If it was accumulated L&P over the limit needed to start the cooling, then the Deep Solar Minimum grinds the salt into already colder wounds.
By how much?
Did it start the PDO flip to cold, just exacerbate it, or is it simply a never mind?
Does the Arctic Ice recovery make for another clue, or does where the Arctic Ice is favoring to form mean anything?
Are the 2 volcanoes popping off in response to, and aggravational effect of, or in coincidence to the Minimum?
Is the cooling a form of “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”, or are we just plain unluckily lucky to get the AGW Climate Circus Monkeys off our backs?
To say that all these things mysteriously happen concurrently is beating the proverbial pants off the odds.
Billions will now see where this thing is going and draw the Cooling for Dummies conclusion. They won’t make any further effort than that.
I am waiting for the whining to begin:
“Weather is not climate”. “Weather is not climate.” Ad infinitum Ad nauseum.
Here is the new official AGW mantra:
CLIMATE…IS NOT CLIMATE.
Har har.
P.S. Just turned my heat on here for the first time here in balmy Norfolk, VA. In light of the many recent positive-AMO-fueled mild winters here, this October feels different from many recent years past.
And the IPCC, Gore, Hansen and others are doing the world a GREAT disservice in screaming chicken little if the world warms.
Fear the cold, not the warm.
There is a reason warm periods are called “climatic optima”.
Fear the cold….and not the warm.
WHY is this so hard to understand???
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
No better in Scandinavia, snow yesterday in southern Sweden, it’s getting close to Copenhagen, some 150 km away, snowstorms in that region really aren’t nice.
Yeah, what’s happening in Canuckshire?
crosspatch (09:41:40) :
My thoughts were that this is the type of intense system we wouldn’t see on the central coast until mid/late November. During many years, we would be in the midst of a hot and dry “indian summer” right now. The stats you listed on the water totals are very eye-opening though. Certainly El Niño-like in terms of the shear water volume, but cooler than the last few El Niño events.
And yes, there was floral carnage all over my yard. Heavy potted plants were strewn around like they were made of styrofoam. A 25 ft. tree fell over, luckily away from the house!