By Kirye
and Pierre Gosselin
Unusual harsh winter conditions have struck the northern hemisphere this October as record snow cover has been observed. More on this below.
No more October warming?
But first looking at the untampered data from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) for stations with complete data going back to 1998 for Canada and 2001 for France, we see there has not been any significant warming for the month of October.
First we examine 9 stations in Canada:
Data source: JMA.
Some stations have warmed modestly, while the others have cooled. Overall, there hasn’t been much October warming at these stations over the past two decades.
In France, whose climate is heavily impacted by the Atlantic, we plot the JMA October data since 2001 for 14 stations across the country.
Data source: JMA.
Nine of 14 stations have seen cooling or no warming for October since 2001. So here the data show that the opposite of what was projected is really happening, and that natural factors, likely Atlantic patterns, are at play.
Dehli sees coldest October in 58 years
Meanwhile Twitter account Electroverse here reports on a variety of unusually harsh early winter events taking place. For example: “Following on from its coldest October in 58 Years, India’s capital city of Delhi has continued toppling low temperature records into November.”
Also Pakistan is getting pounded by heavy snows and the northern hemisphere currently has seen well above normal snow cover, reports Electroverse:
IN PICTURES: PAKISTAN MOUNTAINS BURIED UNDER “TONNES” OF EARLY SEASON SNOW
The Northern Hemisphere’s total snow mass, aided by central Asia’s record snowfall, is now sitting above the 1982-2012 average by 400 gigatons (as of Nov 21). #GSMhttps://t.co/8NQx1OvHv6
— Electroverse (@Electroversenet) November 23, 2020
Record October snow cover
In fact, German Snowfan here reports how October has set a new record for northern hemisphere snow cover since data recording this magnitude began more than 50 years ago, according to the data from the University of Rutgers:
Source: University of Rutgers.
Northeast deep freeze
The Northeast US also saw record low temperatures last week, as the jet stream drove Arctic air far south.
“The mercury held as much as 16°C below the season average in some parts, particularly in New York State, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut,” reported Electroverse. “Long Island, New York wound-up setting a new record low.”
Western USA and Canada have also been hard hit by early, severe winter conditions.
“After a barrage of early-season storms, the snowpack across the Western United States is now well above average for mid-November, wrote Electroverse.
Snowfall 1500% over normal
“In parts of Oregon, totals are hitting as much as 786% of normal. The story is similar across Washington State. While in Idaho and Montana, and elsewhere, the current Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) is comfortably above the 1981-2010 median. Finally, note the 1500% in Texas (the key only goes >= 150%!).”
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November 24, 2020 at 08:05AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 