Climate Number: 92 Gigatons
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA), which lies across Baffin Bay from the northwest coast of Greenland, holds about one third of Earth’s ice mass, excluding the giant Greenland and Antarctic Ice...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Arctic Ice Update – Summer 2011
In Brief: The extent of older Arctic sea ice, or ice that has survived at least one melt season, has been declining since 1980 with a melt rate acceleration beginning around 2002. The 2007 September...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Declining Minimum Flows in the Pacific Northwest
In Brief: Compared to 50 years ago, traditionally snowfall dominated watersheds in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest are experiencing lower low-flow season flows. The mountains in the Pacific...
View ArticleClimate Number: 200 Gigatons
Average global sea level is rising by about three millimeters per year. There are three main contributors to this rise, each of which separately account for about one millimeter each: the thermal...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Glaciers in the West
In Brief: Glaciers, a key source of water in the West, are melting more in the summer than they are growing during the winter. The glaciers that make the peaks of the Western United States white year...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Alaska’s Sea Cliffs Now Retreating at 45 feet per Year
In Brief: The silt cliffs on the Beaufort and Chuckchi Seas around Alaska are crumbling as water temperatures have warmed and the annual duration of the Arctic Sea Ice has declined. The Arctic, where...
View ArticleClimate Trivia: More or Less Snow?
As the planet has warmed over the past 40 years, where, when and how much snow has fallen has changed. Warmer temperatures mean more moisture is in the air, which can lead to more snowfall,...
View ArticleClimate Number: 1,450 Years
The September/October Arctic sea ice annual minimum this year was the second lowest minimum on record for the 33 year period of satellite observations. The lowest minimum was recorded in 2007. But how...
View ArticleClimate Number: One Inch per Year
The extent of the Arctic sea ice, which is usually gauged by its annual minimum extent in September, has been declining by 11.2 percent per decade since 1979. Large-scale effects of this decline impact...
View ArticleClimate Trivia: Lake Effect Snowfall
Warmer temperatures in the Great Lakes region have been accompanied by declines in annual -mean lake ice cover since 1973. On average, each year during this period has had 520 fewer square miles of ice...
View ArticleClimate Number: 520 Square Miles per Year
Ice cover on the Great Lakes peaks in February or early March before beginning its gradual melt, which is generally completed by May or June. Deepwater lakes like Superior take longer to reach peak ice...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Changes in Arctic Sea Ice are Affecting U.S. Weather
In Brief: A warmer Arctic means slower-moving storm systems across the mid-latitudes. Spring is the time of year when the Arctic comes out of its long, dark winter and the sea ice that covers most of...
View ArticleClimate Number: An Albedo Difference of 0.1
Albedo describes how much of the Sun’s radiation an object reflects. New snow is very reflective, with an albedo as high as 0.9, meaning that 90 percent of the sunlight that hits it is reflected. Dark...
View ArticleClimate Number: 15,800 Square Miles
Collectively forming the largest area of glacial cover outside of Alaska and the Arctic and referred to as Earth’s “third pole,” the Himalayan glaciers are important sources of water for the Indus,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climate Fact: Thresholds for AMOC State Change
Need an easy way to explain the concept of thresholds to your viewers? Visit http://www.earthgauge.net/2011/system-dynamics for examples. This page is part of “Climate Concepts: Analogies and Useful...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Pacific Influences on Avalanche Frequency in Glacier National Park
In Brief: Avalanche frequency in Glacier National Park is influenced by snowpack, which is in turn influenced by water temperature distributions in the Pacific Ocean. Disturbances such as wildfires,...
View ArticleClimate Number: 2,800 Petagrams of Carbon
About 760 petagrams (760 billion tons) of carbon dioxide are held in the atmosphere, which is about the same weight as 140,000 Great Pyramids of Giza. While this may sound like a large number, carbon...
View ArticleClimate Number: 69 Gigatons
The biggest collection of ice on Earth is in the South Polar Region. The East Antarctic ice sheet, is situated on top of continental land mass and considered much more resistant to melting than the...
View ArticleClimate Number: Nine Degrees Fahrenheit
The world’s largest ice mass is found around the South Polar region on the continent of Antarctica. This ice is actually two separate ice sheets. The East Antarctic ice sheet is situated on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climate Fact: Two Tales of American Snowfall
Two divergent stories are beginning to emerge about America’s snowfall. While one study showed that American snowfall might decline in the future, another found that the biggest snow-producers –...
View Article
