UPDATE: The East coast snowstorm seen from space
The Mid-Atlantic states were completely white on Sunday, December 20, 2009, in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm. The storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on December 19, according to the National Weather Service. For many locations, the snowfall totals broke records for the most snow to fall in a single December day.
The storm shut down the federal government in Washington DC, stranded travelers, left hundreds of thousands without power and sharply cut holiday sales the weekend before Christmas.
From the “weather is not climate” department here’s interesting news from the National Operational Hyrdologic Remote Sensing Center. While certainly not unprecedented or unusual, it is interesting, especially when comparing years past:
Indeed, it looks like a white Christmas for much of the USA. Here’s the data:
December 21, 2009
| Area Covered By Snow: | 51.7% |
| Area Covered Last Month: | 8.0% |
| Snow Depth | |
|---|---|
| Average: | 3.8 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 887.0 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 6.4 in |
| Snow Water Equivalent | |
| Average: | 0.7 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 435.0 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 1.4 in |
Their weather summary indicates more snow on the way:
One to 3 feet of snow fell in the western Plains yesterday, while up to 1/2 inch of freezing rain fell in the central Plains. The precipitation was in response to a potent upper low in the Southern Plains and an associated surface low, which caused upslope flow conditions. The heaviest snowfall amounts were observed in the Colorado Front Range and in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico. Strong surface winds in these areas caused much blowing and drifting snow.
Most of the snowpack across the West and western Plains is cool, with cold conditions at the lower elevations of the Great Basin. In the central Plains, where rain and snow fell yesterday, the snowpack there is warm, but snowmelt occurred along the southeastern edge of the central U.S. snowpack. Very warm conditions exist on the windward side of the Cascades where warm onshore flow occurred yesterday; slow snowmelt occurred there. Strong surface winds caused high blowing snow sublimation in the Western Plains from southeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle southward to northeastern New Mexico.
The upper low, currently over the Central Plains, will move slowly northeastward during the next three days, passing through the Great Lakes region by Sunday. A surface low will accompany the system. Little additional deepening of the system is expected since it appears that dry air is wrapping around the system. But on the cold side of the low, about 1/2 foot of snowfall is expected today in northeastern Colorado through southwestern Minnesota today. Heavier amounts are expected in orographically-favored areas of the Western Plains and northern Front Range. Snowfall is expected in the eastern part of the Upper Midwest and south of western Lake Superior. Up to 1/2 foot of snowfall is possible in this band with higher amounts snowfall likely in northwestern Wisconsin and the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
A deep surface low just off the central British Columbia coast has a cold front extending southward through the Northwest. Onshore flow behind the cold front and midlevel dynamics associated with the front will bring up to a foot of snowfall to the Cascades, Intermountains, Northern Rockies, and northern Sierra Nevada today and from northwestern Wyoming through southern Utah tomorrow. Another front will bring 4 to 8 inches of snow to the Cascades on Saturday.
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With regard to Eurostar, there have been several news stories blaming the ‘wrong’ kind of snow, a reference to an excuse given several years ago when much of the UK’s rail network came to a halt.
When interviewed last night, Eurostar’s CEO said that the breakdowns were caused by unprecedented low temperatures in Northern France which resulted in heavy condensation when the trains entered the warmer tunnel. This triggered safety cut-outs designed to prevent damage and injury when water comes into contact with electrical equipment.
The important reference here is to unprecedented low temperatures, not snow.
It’s also important to remember that at the end of November, the Met Office and their climate change supercomputers promised us a mild winter..
kadaka (17:13:17) :
“Ignoring that one volcano in the Philippines for the moment, would you say we have had quite a lull in volcanic activity for awhile?”
Lull? Probably not.
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/siusgs-weekly-volcanic-activity-report-9-15-december-2009/
Regards,
Perry
Did someone compare that with a picture of having all roofs painted white…
rbateman (22:30:50) :
When was the last time the Arctic Ice Cap connected with Iceland?
In the early 1960’s
By the way that talk about an Ice Age starting from one year to another doesn’t hold. It’s a fairly quick process, yes, but it takes a few centuries. If it was more or less instantaneous there wouldn’t be any arctic plants or animals since they would have been snowed over and gone extinct long ago.
The process at the end of previous interglacial has been pretty thoroughly studied.
Perry (00:38:51) :
What that report You link to describes *is* a lull. There hasn’t been any major explosive eruptions (which are the only ones that affect climate) for nearly 20 years (Pinatubo 1991), which is an unusually long interval.
Mayon by the way has a history of large explosive eruptions.
Please…
It’s important to correct mistakes…
1. READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IN THE ORIGINAL POST.
2. Try clicking the inline links to images that appear in this piece of the article. Look carefully at the images. they clearly say 2006-2007 VERTICALLY along the LEFT hand side of the image. I’m NOT talking about the trailing “..06..” at the end of the map’s name shown HORIZONTALLY at the top.
3. If we are going to criticise the scientific method of others and hold them to account then we must get our own facts right.
4. This has been mentioned a number of times in the comments for this article, but all that’s happened is ineffectual bickering.
“…Their weather summary indicates more snow on the way:
One to 3 feet of snow fell in the western Plains yesterday, while up to 1/2 inch of freezing rain fell in the central Plains. The precipitation was in response to a potent upper low in the Southern Plains and an associated surface low, which caused upslope flow conditions. The heaviest snowfall amounts were observed in the Colorado Front Range and in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico. Strong surface winds in these areas caused much blowing and drifting snow.
Most of the snowpack across the West and western Plains is cool, with cold conditions at the lower elevations of the Great Basin. In the central Plains, where rain and snow fell yesterday, the snowpack there is warm, but snowmelt occurred along the southeastern edge of the central U.S. snowpack. Very warm conditions exist on the windward side of the Cascades where warm onshore flow occurred yesterday; slow snowmelt occurred there. Strong surface winds caused high blowing snow sublimation in the Western Plains from southeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle southward to northeastern New Mexico…”
EXCELLENT WEBSITE…
half of usa covered by snow = more sheer proof of global warming being man made being a myth
The good news is that I cleaned my pool today here in Queensland Australia and the water temp was 29 degrees Celsius.
Sunfighter (14:04:44) :
Just please hold off more snow in the midwest till Thursday! Im driving wednesday from NW arkansas to North Indiana, but the worst part is my winter tires were on backorder…so im driving a 400hp car with summer only tires….could be intresting
I reccomend staying on I-70 or south as far as you can because I-80 through Nebraska and Iowa are going to start getting freezing rain topped off with heavy snow over the next few days. I have not completely finished digging out from the last one yet. On a positive note my mother in law is flying in from Florida today, so it will be fun to hear her whine about the blizzard 🙂
photon without a Higgs (19:54:39) :
If record snow falls all over the world can the UN hear it?
The simple answer is no, the UN is much like Bill Murry’s character John Connor in GroundHog Day where he is arguing with the cop that the snow is really not happening.
John Levett (00:31:36):
“…. at the end of November, the Met Office and their climate change supercomputers promised us a mild winter..”
Though the winter is not yet over I hope that at the end of winter 2010 the Met Office gets egg all over its face. However, if it does there will be a lot of very angry people who made preparations based on their 50% forecast / hedge.
Why not just look out the window and re-adjust your forecast instead of relying on their Nintendo games.
See that tiny snow free area at the SE corner of Virginia? Home sweet home! I love the Gulf Stream!
Sat photo: wow look at geology! A snowfall nicely details differences in stratigraphy among formations. Ibelieve the thinly bedded formation is a band of sandstones and shales that contain the famous Pennsylvania Bluestone.
@jmt heres a linkie for you re European deaths. http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1222/weather1.html
and the bottom one says we in Eastern Ireland might get a white chrimbo. Thank you uncles Al and Jimbo and Michael and especially Uncle Phil and the team at UEA for cooking up this lovely surprise.
“Southern Munster, southern Leinster and eastern Leinster could experience sleet or snow showers tomorrow afternoon and into Christmas morning.”
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1222/weather.html
I wish it would snow in Perth, it would be a nice change from the usual sand & flies.
GaryPearse (04:52:18) :
“Sat photo: wow look at geology! ”
I second that! Look at all that folded strata!
By the way Joe Romm attributes this particular snowfall to global warming?!?!?!?!?!?!
So much for global warming. I wonder if we can all get a refund from Al Gores movie.
Perhaps he will make another movie – “An inconvenient Lie”
Ah man you really need to have a printer-friendly version, your article are awesome, but I don’t want to save the comments.
Hey anyone home here or are you all on holiday with a bot in charge?
Please fix this story it is an embarrassment.
I figured it out, you are auditioning for the part of Phil Jones in the upcoming drama entitled as the world freezes or otherwise overheats.
Here in western MD I got 20″ (50.8 cm) on cold surfaces like my car & roof, but only 17″ on the ground. Measuring on the ground is the proper way, so that would be the “official” amount.
Mayon volcano in the Philippines now emitting 6000 tons of sulfur dioxide a day, up from the normal 500. (Apparently “American” short tons not metric tonnes, “feet” used in article.)
Nathan Myhrvold at Intellectual Ventures, as mentioned in SuperFreakonomics, suggests pumping liquid sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere for solar dimming to take care of global warming. Considered against volcanic and other natural processes, it would only involve a 1% increase.
I’ve been searching for data on the annual amounts of SO2 released by volcanoes and other sources, no great luck yet. One thing I am wondering about is rising sulfurous emissions from coal use, namely how China has increased emissions by 27% from 2000 to 2005. Yes I know, different atmospheric heights are involved, but I wonder how much of the power plant emissions could wind up in the stratosphere. The proposed “global cooling” method does not appear to involve much more SO2, and worldwide human emissions seem to be going up as the post-1998 global cooling trend continues. Yes, I am only looking at one factor of this complex system, but that is the one item being cited as all that is needed for man-made cooling.
I have noticed two major things about the proposed “Stratoshield.” One, at climateprogress.org they are in foaming-at-the-mouth complete rage that this cheap ($250 million) little plan should even be considered as a solution, which qualifies as a ringing endorsement to me.
Two, commenters here are convinced it is a horrible plan as acid rain is as bad or worse than global warming, the acidification of the oceans would be devastating.
Very well then. I await the mass protest by Greenpeace and many others at the base of Mayon, as they extend their fight at Copenhagen to include other major sources of ocean acidification besides CO2, and demand something be done about these abnormal SO2 releases. Maybe someone will bring some marshmallows and hot dogs.
THis is the Mass New Media concertration its vast resources in distracting us, sidetracking us from the urgent news,m the most important happening, Cop15.
So instead of looking at the International happenings, we narrow our outlook locally.
When I was a kid, we often had 36 inches of snow. Right here in the U.S.North East area. Other times 24 inches. Then again, 36 inches.
People, this is called Winter. Remember?
Something interesting on the first photo is that the Appalachian mountains aren’t visible because the view can pick up higher elevations per say, but because the mountains are forested compared to the flat, agriculturally-cleared and urbanized areas. The darkness of the mountains are forests.
This shows that, at least during snow-covered periods, albedo is increased significantly due to land-clearing & urbanization. But I don’t think it has much temp effect this time of yr during minimum sun exposure.
WEATHER: MORE INCONVENIENCE IN ITALY, TRANSPORT AT RISK
(ANSAmed) – ROME, DECEMBER 22 – Even if temperatures are rising, inconveniences caused by the wave of bad weather in Italy continue. Problems have been reported on the motorways, like the icy rain affecting much of northern Italy, which cannot be eliminated by using salt to cover the asphalt. To avoid further problems, the Autostrade d’Italia group has decided to use a safety car, that is a police vehicle to impose a safe speed on the columns of vehicles. There have also been problems for train transport. FS reported that of the 430 medium and long distance trains scheduled for today, about 5% have been cancelled. It is a number that increases to 6% for the 7,700 regional trains. There have also been serious repercussions on air traffic. Milan, in spite of the fact that it is operative, the Linate airport is practically blocked due to the cancellation of Alitalia flights until 12:00; Malpensa will remain closed until 13:00. The airports of Genoa, Malpensa and Verona are closed at the moment and there are severe limitations in Turin and Bologna. This is the situation in the airports of Northern Italy, according to Alitalia. Due to the bad weather it has emerged, the company explains, “that it is impossible to regularly operate numerous flights, in particular on the North-South routes in the country”. In any case, the company, “in line with the evolution of the situation and in particular with the take-offs and landings authorised by airport management, special flights are being operated to allow for the transport within the day of passengers involved in the irregularity of flights”. Moreover, Alitalia “foresees regular departures from the Linate airport in Milan, on the basis of what the airport management has communicated, by 11:00”, where the limitation of one arrival per hour continues, causing the delays at the airports of departure for Linate. While the company confirms that all intercontinental flights to and from the Fiumicino airport in Rome.(ANSAmed).
2009-12-22 13:10
http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME03.XAM13104.html
Here is another cool website that has a longer time series of snow cover over the Earth — and departure from climatology. Way way above normal.
http://moe.met.fsu.edu/snow/
Florida State link…