Snow Cover Monitoring
November 2011
Beijing Climate Center
China Meteorological Administration
Northern Hemisphere
In November, the number of days with snow cover (NDSC) was 5-25 days in
northwestern and southeastern Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, northern East Asia
and the eastern Tibetan Plateau, central North America, with above 25 days in most
Siberia, parts of central and eastern Tibetan Plateau, northern North America and the
Greenland. NDSC was observed 5-20 days more than normal in regions from
southeastern Europe to most Central Asia, parts of southern Siberia, central and
eastern Mongolia, Northeast China, the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau, central
and eastern North America, with above 20 days more than normal in locations.
Nevertheless, NDSC was 5-15 days less than normal in parts of northwestern Europe,
southwestern Tibet, parts of mid-western North America (Fig.1). Meanwhile, the
interannual variations of Northern Hemisphere snow cover areas anomalies (SCAA)
showed that the SCAA were larger than normal in November 2011.
Fig 1 Northern HemisphereNDSC (left）and the anomalies (right) in November, 2011
Fig 2 The interannual variations of Northern Hemisphere SCAA (unit: 106km2 )
China
In November, the NDSC was 5-25 days in the eastern Tibetan Plateau, northern
and locations of western Xinjiang, central and eastern Inner Mongolia, most Northeast
China, with NDSC above 25 days in parts of the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau.
NDSC was observed 5-20 days more than normal in the central and eastern Tibetan
Plateau, northern and locations of western Xinjiang, central and eastern Inner
Mongolia, northern and western Northeast China, with 20 days more than normal in
parts of the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, NDSC was 5-10 days
less than normal in the southwestern Tibetan Plateau (Fig.1). Meanwhile,the
interannual variations of China snow cover areas anomalies (SCAA) showed that the
SCAA were larger than normal in November 2011.
Fig 3 The interannual variations of China SCAA (unit: 106km2 )
Remark: Original data are from http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/.
Analyst: Climate System Diagnostics and Prediction Division/National Climate Center/CMA
Climatologic fields are from the 1973-2002 base period means.
Reference
Guo Yanjun, Li Wei , Chen Qianjin, An Operational Monitoring and Diagnosing System for Snow
Cover in the Northern Hemisphere (in Chinese), Meteorological Monthly, 30 (11): 24-26
Editor: Wang yanjiao
Chief Editor: Sun leng
Technical assistant: Zhang Yongqiang