Climate normals and the Arctic is this week's topic for the Alaska and Arctic Climate Newsletter. What does "normal" even mean in a rapidly warming environment? Well, that probably depends on your perspective. #Arctic#ClimateChange @Climatologist49
Arctic 12-month running temperatures as the difference from the 1951-80 average, updated through April 2024. The 10-year smoothed average shows the long term trend, the 2-year average captures some of the short term variability. OISSTv2.1 courtesy of NOAA/PSL/ESRL
ERA5 courtesy of ECMWF/Copernicus. #Arctic#ClimateChange#Climate @Climatologist49
A sure sign that contemporary 30-year climate normals are not keeping up with the rate of Arctic change: only one year (2021) since the early 1990s has less than half of land area in the Arctic (north of 60ºN) had annual average temperature above “normal", and eight years more than 90 percent of Arctic Lands were warmer than “normal". In an unchanging climate, this would bounce around 50% each year. #Arctic#ClimateChange
H/T @Climatologist49
Rain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes
Rain used to be rare in the Arctic, but as the region warms, so-called rain-on-snow events are becoming more common. The rains accelerate ice loss, trigger flooding, landslides, and avalanches, and create problems for wildlife and the Indigenous people who depend on them
If you saw my post with the stamp of the rock form known as “The Pants”, here is a photo of a Polar Bear dwarfed by it, seen through its legs. I had the wrong lens on and couldn’t get a photo of the entire formation and bear. #Nunavut#Arctic#LandscapePhotography#WildlifePhotography#PolarBear
Sea ice extent in the Bering Sea remains close to 1991-2020 median in NSIDC data. Large areas of open water north of the ice edge are normal this time of year. The lack of any significant areas of lower concentration ice in the southern Chukchi Sea is unusual for this point in the Spring. #akwx#Arctic#SeaIce#Climate @Climatologist49@ZLabe
Sea surface temperatures departures from the 1991-2020 average around Alaska for the week ending May 10, 2024. Northern Bering Sea mostly below normal and partially sea ice influenced. Eastern Gulf of Alaska warmer than average. Data from OISSTv2.1 courtesy of NOAA/PSL/ESRL. #SST#akwx#Arctic
So, this was released today. My third stamp with Canada Post. Qarlinngua (The pants). And technically my second stamp with a family member in it, as the tiny figure in it is my son Travis. Now for one with Hilary in it.
I’ve very proud of all of these, beyond the cache. They are about my home, and family. And also my family has a long history with the Post Office, 101 years. My grandfather, father, and brother were all postmasters in Roblin. #Nunavut#Arctic#Stamps#philately#CanadaPost
Sea surface temperature departures from 1991-2020 normal in the high resolution OISSTv2 data from NOAA/PSL/ESRL. Eastern Gulf of Alaska remains warmer than normal, while sea ice influenced areas in the Bering Sea are cooler than normal. #sst#akwx#Arctic @Climatologist49
The sea ice melt season in the Arctic is underway and I've got a review of April conditions in a new Alaska and Arctic Climate Newsletter. #akwx#Arctic#SeaIce