The feature image is a screen capture from the Mackinac Bridge webcam taken after 09:00 yesterday. Nice big snowflakes concealing the other side of the bridge. I have added the Houghton web cam in the side bar.
Arctic sea ice extent for October 2017 averaged 6.71 million square kilometers (2.60 million square miles), the fifth lowest in the 1979 to 2017 satellite record. This was 1.64 million square kilometers (633,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average and 820,000 square kilometers (317,000 square miles) above the record low October extent recorded in 2012.
By the end of October, extent remained below average throughout most of the Arctic except within the Laptev Sea, which is fully ice covered. Ice growth over the month was most prominent within the Beaufort, East Siberian, and Laptev Seas and within Baffin Bay. In the Chukchi, Kara, and Barents Seas, the rate of ice growth was slower.
Ice extent also remains far below average in the East Greenland Sea. Keep in mind these are records kept over the last 38 years, so in my opinion there is no ‘normal’ data of above and below – see my earlier post on ‘What is Normal?”
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Now we compare with what we had last year during this period (below). You can see we have a quicker start to the cold and snow cover this year over last. With all this cold and snow to our north and west I can’t help but think we will begin to see accumulating snows start in southern Michigan in early to mid December.
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18° at 07:00 with a windchill of 12° here at the station. Temperatures are quite frigid over the northern hemisphere as the snow-pack increases. These are temperature readings at 13:00EST yesterday.
These are the snow fall totals thus far in the U.P. from the lake effect off Lake Superior. I added the Houghton webcam in the side bar yesterday.
The heaviest snow fell over parts of the Keweenaw Peninsula overnight. The heaviest snow should be confined over Alger, Luce, and northern Schoolcraft counties this afternoon as transient heavy lake effect snow bands meander across the area.
An additional 6-12″ of snow is likely across these areas as well as significantly reduced visibilities. Elsewhere, 1-2″ of snow is possible as lake effect snow showers pass through the area.
This is the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. The entire crew of 29 was lost in Lake Superior. From 1816 to 1975 at least 240 ships have been lost in the Whitefish Bay area. The southern shore of Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Michigan, and Whitefish Point is known as the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes” and more ships have been lost around the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior.
Not sure what the high will end up at here in Grand Rapids, but at this time the temperature is 26° with sunny skies. The coldest maximum temperature at GR for November 10th is 27° in 1933 the 2nd coldest is 29° in 1926 and 1913. While I had a low of 13° here at my house the official low at GRR was 17° and that is one degree above the record low for the date of 16° set in 1957. But this year will be the 2nd coldest November 10th in history. As a reading of 20° was in 2nd place having occurred in 2003 and 1987. Now for anyone who thinks that having a cold day on November leads to a cold and snowy winter. Well that has not been the case at least not for Grand Rapids. Here is a year by year break down. For the coldest maximum years. 1. 1933/34 there was only 38.1” of snow that winter the winter was mild but February was cold. 2. 1926/27 once again not much snow with only 37.5” and the winter as a whole was mild. 3. 1913/14 that winter Grand Rapids seen 57.2” of snow and December and January were mild but February was cold. For the 3 top coldest lows for November 10th 1. 1957/58 snow fall reported at Grand Rapids 70.5” winter once again December and January were mild but February was cold. 2. 1987/88 winter snow fall 74.0” and that winter was colder than average. And 3. 2003/04 that winter Grand Rapids recorded 62.4” of snow (similar to the last two winters) and that winter seen a cold January. So I guess one can not forecast a snowy winter (for Grand Rapids) based on a cold November 10th but maybe one can say there is a higher chance of a colder that average February. But for snow fall all the years (with the coldest maximum and Minimums) for November 10th were below average (at Grand Rapids)
Slim
Well here at my house the ground is white as there is 0.4” of snow on the ground. Its on the grass, roofs and the road. The wind blew some off the cars and roofs but they too are white. It looks like the airport did not get this snow and the temperatures might show that as the low at the airport so far is 18° and here at my house it was 14° its 16° here now with some clouds moving in.
Slim