World Meteorological Organization shortens winter

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Changing weather patterns prompted world climate officials to officially shorten the winter season by four weeks in an announcement made April 1.

New parameter better match current climate reality, scientists say

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — After evaluating the latest satellite data from the past few months, the World Meteorological Organization announced April 1 that, starting this year, the official winter season will be shortened by one month, two weeks at either end.

A warming global climate, especially in the Arctic, requires the change in order to keep the seasons in synch with climatological realities, said Manny Fairweather, lead long-range climate analyst for the Geneva-based group.

Instead of beginning Dec. 21, winter will officially start Jan. 6, and instead of ending March 21, it will end two weeks earlier, on March 7.

“It just doesn’t make sense for winter to last for three months anymore,” Fairweather said at an April 1 press conference. “The reality is that we just aren’t seeing winter conditions in December, so we’ve decided to delay the start of the season until January. (more…)

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Colorado: Headed for drought?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

More of this is wanted in Colorado. PHOTO COURTESY DYLAN BERWYIN.

Third-year La Niña could spell trouble for state, officials warn in latest drought outlook

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A drought outlook for Colorado issued March 28 offered a gloomy outlook for the spring and summer unless weather conditions turn around drastically in the next few weeks.

Even worse, state water experts said there’s still a greater than 40 percent chance that La Niña could stretch into a third year. Three-year La Niñas are associated with some of the driest periods on record, according to the update issues by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, La Niña, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Climate: Winter of 2012 the 4th-warmest on record

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

The 48 contiguous states reported the fourth-warmest winter on record. GRAPHIC COURTESY NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER.

Despite lingering La Niña, average temps in lower 48 nearly 4 degrees above average

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Widespread warmth persisted across the U.S. for most of December, January and February, resulting in fourth-warmest winter on record and the warmest since 2000 for the contiguous 48 states, according to the National Climatic Data Center’s monthly update.

The warmth came despite a lingering La Niña, when cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific often translate into cooler conditions over the U.S.

The average temperature for the December to February period was 36.8 degrees, 3.9 degrees above the 1901-200 average, while precipitation across the lower 48 was 5.7 inches, about .78 inches below the long-term average.

The warmth was also reflected by the snow cover extent for the season, reported as the third-lowest on record by the Rutgers Global Snow Lab. The snowpack was especially small across parts of the West, where California is reporting its second-driest winter on record. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Environment, global warming, La Niña, Snow and weather | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Europe cold spell attributed to Arctic pressure shifts

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

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This winter could end up being one of the 10 coldest on record for Europe, one of 10 warmest in the continental U.S.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The late-January cold snap in Europe brought temperatures up 16 degrees colder to large parts of central Asia and eastern Europe, with another unusual cold patch in southern France.

The colder-than-average temperatures covered nearly all of Europe, with exception of parts of Scandinavia, and also extended eastward across Asia, into the Middle East and much of northern Africa. The coldest anomalies wereover Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Conversely, much warmer than average temperatures were recorded over parts of the Arctic, especially the Kara and Barents seas, which remained ice-free through late in the winter.

Meteorologists say the polar outbreak over Europe and Asia resulted from a strong negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, a periodic shift in air pressure patterns above the far north. In a negative phase, the air pressure over the Arctic is higher, with weaker zonal (west to east) winds. The pattern enables cold Arctic air to spill farther south. (more…)

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Summit Voice: Most-viewed and weekend headlines

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

We posted the Summit County February weather stats update over the weekend. Check it out!

Tourism, climate and wilderness …

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A snapshot of the most-viewed stories list on the WordPress dashboard for Summit Voice shows that a tourism story about a partnership between Microsoft and the World Tourism Organization found readers from all over the world the past few days, while a batch of climate science and global warming stories were clustered just behind. The list wraps up with more reporting on the lone gray wolf that is wandering around California, and information about a plan to raise  fees at a couple of day-use sitea along the upper Colorado River.

Click the headlines, read the stories and pass them on via your own favorite social media network.

Filed under: business, climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, Snow and weather, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Summit County: February snowfall a mixed bag

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Colorado's snowpack is still lagging behind average.

Above-average totals reported in Breck; but below average in Dillon

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — For the second month in a row, snowfall totals were above average at the official National Weather Service observation station in the town of Breckenridge.

It was a different story in Dillon, where both snowfall and precipitation were well below normal. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, La Niña, Snow and weather, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Colorado: Dead forests could affect the weather

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Beetle-killed areas could have an effect on localized thunderstorm formation and precipitation

Pine beetles killed tens of thousands of acres of trees. Could that affect local weather patterns? Some researchers think it might.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Researchers who set out to study whether deforestation on the slopes of Kilimanjaro is affecting the mountain’s ice cap concluded that large-scale climate changes have much more of an impact on the glaciers. But they also documented that clear-cutting the mountain’s forests is having a distinct effect on precipitation at the mid-level elevations, where rainfall has been reduced.

The findings could have implications for Colorado, where some forest landscapes are experiencing wholesale changes after the pine beetle epidemic. Both scientists said that, depending on the scale of changes in Colorado and the rest of the region affected by the outbreak, the changes in land cover could have an effect on summer rains by changing the amount of moisture available for convection in the lower atmosphere.

After reading about the Kilimanjaro research, I corresponded with two scientists who have studied how land-use changes can affect mesoscale weather, including Thomas Mölg (University of Innsbruck, Austria), who conducted the study at Kilimanjaro, and Roger Pielke, Sr., of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Some forecasters expect above-average tornado season

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Above-average water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico could fuel severe weather early in spring. IMAGE COURTESY ACCUWEATHER.COM.

Warm Gulf waters could lead to severe weather early in the season

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Warmer than average water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico could fuel another severe weather season — with more tornadoes than average — this spring, according to an outlook issued this week by AccuWeather.com.

The fading La Niña pattern (cooler-than-average sea surface temps in the eastern equatorial Pacific) is also likely to shift the the focus of tornadoes farther west into the traditional zone known as Tornado Alley, stretching from Texas up into Kansas.

During a strong La Niña, like in the spring of 2011, tornado activity tends to shift farther east, the AccuWeather forecasters said, explaining that they expect the deep South, including the Gulf States and eastern Texas, to get hit by severe weather early in the season, mainly in March, due to the warmer-than average waters of the Gulf. (more…)

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Weather: Lasers to give more accurate snowpack readings

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Boulder-based researchers field testing new technology

Boulder researchers are exploring more accurate ways to measure snowpack.

Ethan Gutmann examines a laser instrument for measuring snow. (©UCAR, Photo by Carlye Calvin.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Specialized lasers and the latest GPS technology will help meteorologists make more accurate assessments of snow cover and snowpack — critical measurements for determining avalanche danger, predicting water supplies and anticipating flood hazards.

“We’ve been measuring rain accurately for centuries, but snow is much harder because of the way it’s affected by wind and sun and other factors,” said Ethan Gutmann, a researcher at the Boulder National Center for Atmospheric Research. The new technology will finally give scientists the  ability to say exactly how much snow is on the ground, he added. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, snow, Snow and weather, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Summit Voice: Most-viewed & week in review

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

A lion's mane jellyfish. PHOTO BY DAN HERSHMAN VIA THE CREATIVE COMMONS.

Jellyfish, weather and avalanches

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A decent week for page views at Summit Voice, with a Google News link for our jellyfish story driving page views to more than 6,000. It’s the first time we can remember that we’ve had four stories with 1,000 page views or more, including a couple of climate science articles and a quick blurb on the Front Range snow storm. Click, read and share with the social media buttons at the end of each post.

Filed under: Colorado, Environment, global warming, Snow and weather, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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