Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/02/2008 7:13:26 PM PST by neverdem
This past week, I was sent this article by Craig Medred of McClatchy Newspapers. The polar bears were elated!
Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.
Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by abnormally chilly temperatures in June, July and August.
"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.
"In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years."
Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.
"It's been a long time on most glaciers where they've actually had positive mass balance," Molnia said.
That's the way a scientist says the glaciers got thicker in the middle. The same thickening of the ice in the middle of the continent is also happening in Antarctica.
Mass balance is the difference between how much snow falls every winter and how much snow fades away each summer. For most Alaska glaciers, the summer snow loss has for decades exceeded the winter snowfall.
The result has put the state's glaciers on a long-term diet. Every year they lose the snow of the previous winter plus some of the snow from years before. And so they steadily shrink.
Since Alaska's glacial maximum back in the 1700s, Molnia said, "I figure that we've lost about 15 percent of the total area."
What might be the most notable long-term shrinkage has occurred at Glacier Bay, now the site of a national park in Southeast Alaska. When the first Russian explorers arrived in Alaska in the 1740s, there was no Glacier Bay. There was simply a wall of ice across the north side of Icy Strait.
That ice retreated to form a bay and what is now known as the Muir Glacier. And from the 1800s until now, the Muir Glacier just kept retreating and retreating and retreating. It is now back 57 miles from the entrance to the bay, said Tom Vandenberg, chief interpretative ranger at Glacier Bay.
That's farther than the distance from glacier-free Anchorage to Girdwood, where seven glaciers overhang the valley surrounding the state's largest ski area. The glaciers there, like the Muir and hundreds of other Alaska glaciers, have been part of the long retreat.
Overall, Molnia figures Alaska has lost 10,000 to 12,000 square kilometers of ice in the past two centuries, enough to cover an area nearly the size of Connecticut.
Molnia has just completed a major study of Alaska glaciers using satellite images and aerial photographs to catalog shrinkage. The 550-page "Glaciers of Alaska" will provide a benchmark for tracking what happens to the state's glaciers in the future.
North Idaho long rage outlook and review:
I'm writing this North Idaho long-range weather outlook on Tuesday, November 25, as Sharon and I will be visiting my 92-year-old mother, Muriel, for Thanksgiving in Port Angeles, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. We'll be back late Sunday, just ahead of the December 1 printing of this column.
I'm still looking for at least a six-week cold and snowy period to develop across much of the Inland Northwest between December 10 and January 21.
Our normal December snowfall in Coeur d'Alene, averaged out over the past 113 years, is 19.3 inches. Last December, in 2007, we gauged a whopping 47 inches of the white stuff, more than twice the normal amount for the 31-day period. Only 6.3 inches, however, fell during November of 2007, all of this after Thanksgiving. Our normal 113-year November snowfall is 7.8 inches.
I still would not be too surprised to see at least 50 inches of snow fall in the lowlands of North Idaho between now and mid-January of 2009.
As much as 100 inches or more of the white stuff may blanket the ski slopes in the region at elevations above 4,000 feet.
Our normal seasonal snowfall in Coeur d'Alene is 66.7 inches. With at least 30 inches of additional snow expected during the second half of the winter of 2008-09, we should end up with approximately 80 inches by June 30, less than half of the astounding total last winter of 172.9 inches, an all-time record.
I'm still giving at least a 70 percent shot of a brilliant white Christmas this time around compared with the normal 50/50 odds of such a welcome occurrence.
January and, perhaps, early February will likely be colder than normal across the Inland Empire. We should see a series of frigid winter seasons in North Idaho during an expected prolonged two-decade cycle of global cooling. (See last week's 'Gems' article.)
The coldest weather of this upcoming winter season should produce some subzero readings, as a huge Arctic high pressure ridge moves in from the north during the 'full moon' cycle of January 11-18. The mercury could dip to as low as -20 degrees or colder in parts of North Idaho, and to near -30 degrees Fahrenheit in western Montana. Stay tuned, I'll have more details later.
Sarah did it she is superwomen
Damn that global varming anyway.
Hm....so what am I supposed to believe here?
Thanks for the link.
Hey Al! IT'S THE WEATHER, STUPID!
Man, I hope this ain’t on the level. I just moved north to NH expecting it to turn into Palm Springs. If this Gore guy has sold me a bill of goods, and this Global Warming thing ain’t happening, I am going to be PO’D
Okay...Where’s my favorite picture- Happy Polar Bears toasting the penguin.
Obviously the ice is re-accumulating with the mere thought of the Obamessiah in the white house.
I would like to speak with you about some Nigerian investments. Please FReepmail me.
Kidding...really. Couldn't resist. :-)
Yup, Global Warming reversed on the day she became Governor. Obama should take "Planet-Healing lessons."
It didn’t happen, not even close. Just more BS from the global warming con job artists.
I need to book my Alaskan cruise to Glacier Bay before the bay is lost to the growth of the glacier.
And I suppose you sold the snowblower too?
I can’t believe that people are seriously considering wrecking the entire economy just to save a couple polar bears. Move them to a zoo.
We’re all gonna fry!! Oops, wait — We’re all gonna freeze to death!
Have there been any comments from the warming trend theorists?
With refrigeration .. powered by Freon, fer cryin out loud! Yeah, thats the ticket! /laughs
“And I suppose you sold the snowblower too?”
The snow blower? Heck I gave that away. You think I screwed up?
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