Home/BlogMuch of the Eastern U.S. finally had a clear day yesterday (March 6, 2015) , allowing the NASA MODIS imager to capture this extraordinary view of the new snow (up to 20 inches in Kentucky) laid down through the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states (click for full-size):
Dr Spencer,
Suppose global warming pushed jet stream south, would this cause more snow ? If so because of large land area like USA, Canada getting more snow would the snow albedo be significant negative feedback?
The albedo effect that gets too little attention are man-made structures and roads. This construction has reduced albedo for a million square kilometers. Notice how excited we get when Arctic ice declines by a million square kilometers — and the Arctic has a much lower angle for the sun’s rays.
Use the coordinates below in Google Earth —
47.24944, -119.640225
Along Hyw #28 (black asphalt) and irrigated crops (dark green), there is a bit of natural dry land grass/sage (light gray). If you back-off (zoom out) you can see a light color (dry land wheat). This wheat area is the brightest surface, and as you can see by looking at all of eastern Washington State, there is a lot of it. Further, the colors change with the growing season.
This albedo thing is tricky.
Global warming pushing the jet stream south – that would be something out of a Michael Bay sci-fi movie.
Thanks, Dr. Spencer.
A beautiful snow cover map, with the northeast looking like the Moon.
Generally, snow cover is a bit less this year than recently. Nothing to write about. But the 45 year graph (see link) shows slight average increase in NH snow coverage.
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_seasonal.php?ui_set=nhland&ui_season=1
I think I see a small patch of global warming in central New Hampshire.
How does that satellite have enough resolution to see the state lines so clearly ?? /sarc
Great Image, thanks
KevnK
Note the title of this post includes “Extraordinary Color” –
By this is meant that the boundaries are still there but the colors of the various States have been removed. For example, NY is really yellow, PA – blue, Ohio – orange; and so on.
Just think how much money we could save if we weren’t painting those states red and blue all the time.
Wow, Lake Erie frozen solid!! I have high hopes for March, February was a bear (here in the S.Tier of NYS)
Interesting that two of the “finger lakes” in the middle of upstate New York are mostly ice free in that image. Seneca and Cayuga lakes are very deep (600 plus feet for Seneca, 400 plus for Cayuga), similar to Lake Ontario which is also mostly ice free at the western end where it is 600 plus feet deep.
The US Navy had (has ?) an experimental site on Seneca Lake where they tested submarine technologies. Seneca is the deepest lake in the US, deeper than Superior, I believe ?
Cheers, KevinK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Lake_(New_York)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pend_Oreille
LPO is in Idaho; also used by the Navy.
Has. They test all kinds of underwater acoustics technologies there. The barge is a nice place to be during the summer, but it’s not fun in December, January, or February. There are wineries along the shore, so if you’re there at the right time of year you can get blasted on your way back to the hotel! 😉
Crater Lake is the deepest.
Interesting that the bottom of Seneca Lake is actually nearly 200′ below sea level.
However, it is far from the deepest lake in the US.
Lake Tahoe, for example, is over 1600′ deep, and Crater Lake is nearly 2000′ feet deep.
Except Erie, each of the Great Lakes is much deeper than Seneca
I thought perhaps you were referring to the level of the bottom of the lake, in terms of absolute depth below sea level, but here, too, the Great Lakes, except Erie,(although Huron is a squeaker) have Seneca beat.
Seneca Lake does have the distinction of being the deepest lake to lie completely within the state of New York.
Global warming pushing the jet stream south.
All supporters of the fraud should consider reading this article (March 28) from which I quote …
Major publisher retracts 43 scientific papers amid wider fake peer-review scandal … A major publisher of scholarly medical and science articles has retracted 43 papers because of “fabricated” peer reviews amid signs of a broader fake peer review racket affecting many more publications. – Washington Post.