Loss of Arctic sea ice K.O.ed very cold winters in US

News Type: Event - 
Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:14 AM EDT

No brainer - decline in Arctic sea ice is related to decline in "very cold winters" in the US

It seems like a "no brainer" to me that the decline in Arctic sea ice cover is in large part related to the decline in very cold winters - in recent decades - within the northern U.S.

I consider "very cold winters" to be like cold winters which occurred about 2 - 3 times per decade from the 1820s through the1970s.

Temperature records at Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1820s to current - and records at other U.S. climate stations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado - all show sharp declines in "very cold winters", as indicated by sharp declines in annual average mean and daily min temperatures and in sharp declines in annual and decade frequency of days with severe cold temperatures - since the late 1970s.

There has not been a "very cold winter" in the northern U.S. since 1996 at any of the US climate stations with long term records (1890s-current).

Temperature data plots from 1820 to recent at U.S. climate stations are viewable from the link shown below on "Temperature plots at US climate stations in the U.S."

-- Background: --
Implications Arctic sea ice loss

Reference - excerpt:
"The longer this process continues, the less likely recovery becomes," Abdalati believes. "The implications on global climate are not well known, but they have the potential to be quite large, since the Arctic ice cover exhibits a tremendous influence on our climate."

Boulder CO Sep 28, 2007 by Stephen Cole