Comments on: Arctic Ice and the Polar Vortex, #SochiSlush (Updated)

By: Douglas Kennedy, DC

Douglas Kennedy, DC — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:24:18 +0000

And in Colorado, the snow falls in strange new patterns….

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 00:22:58 +0000

The Wiki is wrong. Or, more exactly, those data do not refer to the site of the outdoor venue. I’ve explained it all here: http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/01/30/there-are-two-sochis/

Thing is, many if not most major ski resorts around the world are having significant problems with climate change induced warming and or climate change induced weather whiplash. In a different year this could have been a good venue.

People made the same mistake with Vancouver. Vancouver is a warmish place, for its latitude, but the ski slope etc were up in the mountains where it is normally a good skiing area. Had this year’s Olympics been held there it might be worse, as I hear there is nary a flake in those mountains.

By: James Mayeau

James Mayeau — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 00:09:36 +0000

Where is Sochi anyhow?

Oh here it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sochi_at_Black_Sea_with_Krasnodarski_Krai.png

From the Wiki; Sochi has a humid subtropical climate[22][23] with mild winters (average 11 °C (52 °F) during the day and 4 °C (39 °F) at night) in the period from December to March and warm summers (average 24 °C (75 °F) during the day and 16 °C (61 °F) at night) in the period from May to October.

Gosh, why do the Olympic organizers keep holding the games at inappropriately tropical climate venues?

By: Abed

Abed — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 04:39:10 +0000

This is proof that global warming is a current problem and not a future one. Also that local weather does not have any impact on overall weather patterns. More worrying than a polar vortex is the California drought. Global warming is real it is a problem we must over come now.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 00:37:56 +0000

Here’s a post that gives more background on the likely link between warming and these odd weather patterns.

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2013/09/28/global-warming-and-extreme-weather-climate-agw/

By: Brandi

Brandi — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 00:15:52 +0000

It seems as if the climate has almost switched places with one another. Like others have said before me, there has to be a scientific explanation. If I were to suggest anything it would be that the vortex is being pulled down by a jet stream causing it to freeze some place and push warmth up in such places like Alaska. Maybe this is It seems as if the climate has almost switched places with one another. Like others have said before me, there has to be a scientific explanation. If I were to suggest anything it would be that the vortex is being pulled down by a jet stream causing it to freeze some places and pushes warmth up in such places like Alaska. Maybe this is caused by the commonly talked about topic, Global Warming. Just possibly global warming was the cause of the extreme spikes in wind pressure change causing the sudden jet stream to spiral into the places with higher temperatures pushing the cold air down and the hot air up into Alaska.

It’s interesting.

The strange thing is that a relatively-warm Arctic winter can act to reinforce the sea ice – it allows small amounts of melt to form in the ice, which drains out the salt in a concentrated brine, leaving behind freshwater ice which is harder to melt.

By: Jordan G

Jordan G — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 23:52:01 +0000

Until now I did not have a good understanding of the cause of this brutally cold weather in the past month. This blog gave a nice explanation of the Polar Vortex and a prediction of what will come of the Artic in later months. I was able to find more information available at http://www.wunderground.com/news/polar-vortex-plunge-science-behind-arctic-cold-outbreaks-20140106 . Hopefully the movement of the vortex does not mean a lot of melting of ice caps in the Artic. But if it does, this should show people to be more eco-friendly!

By: Sylvester B

Sylvester B — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:11:54 +0000

Many (I might add “many, many”) years ago I enjoyed skiing the slopes at Alpental (east of Seattle) and Mount Baker (north). I absolutely hated the slush. But some guys had what they called the “Slush Bowl” in which they skiied in bathing suits and had a ramp near a bit of open water. Down the hill, off the ramp, and splash! into the slush.

Not for me. Too damn cold.

JimB

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:03:54 +0000

Andrew, this may be a good time to open a betting pool.

By: Andrew Dodds

Andrew Dodds — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 09:28:19 +0000

It’s interesting.

That’s a hypothesis. We’ll be finding out how accurate a hypothesis son enough.. because on an alterative track, an awful lot of heat has been travelling north via the UK this winter in the form of one storm system after another. The warmth – I’ve yet to measure a sub-zero-C temperature this winter – and rainfall has been amazing. And as far as I know, these systems then track into the Arctic, which is presumably why the ice edge is so far north here for the time of year.

Still.. there is a part of me that thinks that we may be about to see a few years of Arctic sea ice staying more or less where it is. area and volume wise, and instead a return to El Nino-prone conditions. But I’m not sure that even qualifies as a hypothesis yet. Would blow out all the surface temperature records, though.