From NOAA’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center comes this snow map today showing that nearly half of the mainland is covered by snow accompanying the Arctic Cold Blast leading into the new year. While we start 2018 down slightly from the peak last week, it’s still a large area of snow cover.
On December 25, 2017 the total contiguous USA Area Covered By Snow was 49.0% making a “White Christmas” for almost half of the USA (excluding Alaska and Hawaii, though both have snow).
Today:
Most the the loss occurred in the Southern States where temperatures are warmer, but the northern states and Canada remained locked in the white grip, suggesting that cold air incursions into the USA will continue for awhile. January 1, 2018 Area Covered By Snow: 41.9%
In the past 24 hours, as much as 14″ of news snow has fallen. Here are the top ten snowfall reports.
| Station ID | Name | Elevation
(feet) |
Snowfall
(in) |
Duration
(hours) |
Report Date / Time(UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41.5909_081.0473 | MONTVILLE (CLE1322) | 1243 | 8.000 | 12.000 | 2017-12-31 12:00 |
| MI-GT-25 | TRAVERSE CITY 4.7 ESE, MI | 804 | 14.200 | 24.000 | 2017-12-31 12:00 |
| LAPI3 | LAPORTE | 817 | 13.600 | 24.000 | 2018-01-01 06:00 |
| 41.3769_081.6684 | SEVEN HILLS NWS EMPLOYEE (CLE1173) | 1040 | 6.800 | 12.000 | 2017-12-31 08:30 |
| 42.4441_079.3461 | 1 WNW FREDONIA COCORAHS (X4240793) | 692 | 12.000 | 23.000 | 2017-12-31 10:00 |
| CHKP1 | CHALKHILL | 1995 | 12.000 | 24.000 | 2017-12-31 12:00 |
| TCMM4 | TRAVERSE CITY MUNSON | 630 | 11.600 | 24.000 | 2017-12-31 12:30 |
| 41.4077_081.5012 | BEDFORD HTS SNOW SPOTTER (CLE1175) | 1086 | 5.600 | 12.000 | 2017-12-31 14:21 |
| PA-SM-1 | HIDDEN VALLEY 0.3 ENE, PA | 2759 | 11.000 | 24.000 | 2017-12-31 10:00 |
| NY-OS-15 | MINETTO 0.1 SE, NY | 335 | 10.600 | 24.000 | 2017-12-31 12:30 |
Source: https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html
imoira, the Warm Period – Cold Period cycle seems to be about 600-700 years long. So, an individual Warm Period or Cold Period, or half cycle, would be about 300 years (plus or minus for variability’s sake). The “end” of the last Cold Period, the LIA, seems to be agreed upon to be about 1850. So, we’ve been in our current Modern Warm Period about 150 years or so, and we may have another 100 or 150 years before the next Cold Period – the NLIA? Next Little Ice Age? – asserts itself.
My own little research says that the less dominant 60-70 year cycle modulates the more dominant longer period cycle(s), so the cool about-35 year period we entered around 2010 will only slightly modulate the more dominant 600 year cycle. So we shouldn’t expect it to get much cooler in the next 25-30 years, but perhaps it will go part of the way to where the previous 1940-1975 cool period was. (This winter is sure starting out to resemble a few of the winters in the late 1950s-1960s.) The reason we may not get too much cooler (a la 1940-75) is because we may be at almost to the maximum extent or zenith of natural warming for this Modern Warm Period. It might get even a little warmer than present in the 2045-2080 period when the warm part of the about-70 year cycle kicks in and (going out on a limb here) superimposingly adds to the warming. This could give the alarmists renewed ammunition, if the CAGW idea hasn’t fallen apart by then.
I have an idea about why the sunspot cycle might be involved in these cycles, but it wasn’t commented upon when I posited it here previously, so I’ll leave that for another time.
Should I ask NASA, NOAA, or the NSF for a grant to study this? sarc/
4caster
Not borne out by the evidence though. The UK Met Office/Hadley global series runs from 1850 ad there is no warming trend at all between 1850 and the 1930s. In fact it cooled during that period.
4caster
Yes!
Of course ask for a grant.
You might even get one – but if all it takes is an hour or five of yoir time – Go For It.
lots of folk do.
Auto
I hear France is giving out grants.
The first “climate ” refugees 🙂
Looks like the other side of the northern hemisphere is well covered too. http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/climate/world-maps/world-snow-ice-cover.html
This map is not accurate. There are now Snowflakes all across the country and concentrated in urban areas and in California.
Looks like they may be forming a blizzard, then an avalanche though !
They had HUGE snowflake avalanches in Washington and NY, just after Trump was elected. !
“At what stage did the message change to a warmer world will be a more snowy world?”
That happened when it snowed.
+100!
…that would be the Sanity Clause.
Well before that, I remember a trek towards the North Pole to highlight global warming that had to be cancelled due to extremely cold weather. One of the scientists had the gall to say that it was not ironic at all because extreme weather events were predicted to increase due to global warming.
And wasn’t there the Ship of Extremely-well Believing Professors [Fanatically-Over-Observing-Lingams is unfair.] that was investigating warming seas off the Antarctic, a couple or three years ago – and got stuck in the Ice, and couldn’t get out.
‘Aurora Australis’ and – at least – one other ship tried to get them out. Not easy
All weather, of course.
Of – blindingly bleedingly obvious – course!
Auto
Weather, not climate.
It is amazing how many outlets missed this winter so badly. Everything I have learned about the recurring cycle from a blog called Texas Storm Watch (http://texasstormwatch.com) pointed toward a colder winter. This is what happens when everyone just relies on La Nina or El Nino for their forecasts.
My grandfather had a saying every Christmas…”As the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen”.
I just spent Christmas in the Siberia of the prairies, (Saskatchewan) and what was exacerbated this time was the bitter windchills down into the mid -50’s. Very dangerous to be caught out in that. I also remember colder winters and lows in the mid -40’s throughout the 1950’s to late 1970’s, so this is just a return to what was commonplace for centuries there.
I just arrived in the Philippines for a tropical get away, and while I hate the cold, I am not much on 100% humidity and +30 temps either. But I will take this over the cold, especially this time of year. Tropical Depression Agaton just blew thru last night and while a bit of an inconvenience for the area, we should all remember this is just normal every day weather, including the cold up north.
DWR54: Actually, that would fit somewhat well with my perceived pattern, as the circa 35 year cooling period from 1870-1905 would partially or perhaps completely offset any warming(negatively superpose) in a slow recovery in temperature as the LIA segued to the Modern Warm Period. There certainly was at least significant U.S. warming and apparently global warming in the latter portion of the 1905-1940 half-cycle.
I term that 60-70 year cycle the Ludlum cycle, after the renowned (and late) David Ludlum. The 30-35 year half-cycle is comprised of 3 sunspot cycles, and I wonder if three sunspot cycles could affect the global atmosphere by having an alternate dominance of polarity. Could one 3-sunspot-cycle span, dominated by positive polarity (2 positives to 1 negative), be followed by another of negative dominance, and this have an effect on the upper atmosphere which then affects lower atmospheric flow patterns, and thus temperature? Who knows…but at least I am thinking!
Meanwhile down under the doomsdayers are busy freezing tropical coral eggs to save you all from the global warmening-
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-02/dubbo-coral-sperm-bank-could-help-safeguard-great-barrier-reef/9290188
Tis the gift giving season and they tell me it’s the thought that counts.
Here in Fort Myers this coming week we are expecting four nights in a row of lows in the mid 30s, and it appears we will be lucky to see 60 in the afternoon during that spell.
But it appears that after that, we will get a nice warmup, although forecasts a week out are subject to large error.
Looks to be the coldest stretch in many years in these parts.
It’s weird what is happening. It looks almost as if the Arctic and United States climate has been swapped. It’s almost as if there is something odd going on with the climate. Over here in the UK / Europe the weather is pretty much as normal, wind, rain and grey skies. I would imagine the weird and radical evangelists will soon be claiming that the good Lord is sending the US a message of some sort.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
Gareth, you obviously slept through the last week or so of weather in the UK and missed the Snow & freezing temperatures, or is just you live in an alternate universe?
Nope, the weather here has been wet and raining over Christmas and since, check the records. I think there was a light dusting of snow Christmas night and a few weeks before that, but not much. We are currently battened down for the latest storm (Eleanor) which is currently bearing down on us even as we speak. I’d like a bit of that cold weather they are experiencing in the US. At least it settles the storms down. Snow is generally much more fun than months of rain. Here are some records if you are interested in trends ( You are welcome !)
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2017
They’re doomed, doomed I tell ya Gareth unless they repent and take the fizz out of their fizzy drinks. Gaia will punish them with no hot chocolate by the fire-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/scientists-work-to-stop-chocolate-from-going-extinct-by-2050/ar-BBHMHCO
If a period of cooling was beginning, this is probably how it would start.
When I was a child the snow always seemed to be up to my waist. Now it only reaches my knees wuwt.
Heck, it’s not the snow, it’s watching the Great Lakes flash freeze. 19.6% as of the 1st of 2018.
Exactly 5 years ago a posted this on WUWT
(vukcevic January 3, 2013 at 10:29 am)
“The temperature anomaly known as the ‘Arctic amplification’, as depicted in the first illustration has an uncanny resemblance to the distribution of the Earth’s magnetic field”
Is this a pure coincidence. Possible but unlikely?
Common cause Natural variability?”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/03/uah-global-temperature-report-2012-was-9th-warmest/
Not only have the Queensland coal miners killed every polar bear on the Great Barrier Reef; they have now caused beavers to freeze to death across North America and caused panic buying of maple syrup.