Snow Cover in the Northern Hemisphere
(September 2006)
Northern Hemisphere
During September 2006, area of snow cover was all below normal in Eurasia, the
Northern Hemisphere and North America (Fig.1).
Fig.1 Regional Snow Cover Anomaly Indices (Unit:106km2)
(a) Northern Hemisphere (b) Eurasia (c) North America
For the month, number of days with snow cover (NDSC) was generally 5~25 days in
northern Russia, parts of northern Europe and northern North America, with 30 days in Greenland,
parts of northern and central Siberia. NDSC was observed 5~20 days more than average in parts
of northern Russia. Meanwhile, NDSC was observed 5~15 days less than average in parts of
northeastern Russia, Alaska, northeastern Canada and western side of Tibet (Fig.2).
Fig.2 Number of Days with Snow Cover (left) and Anomalies (right)
in the Northern Hemisphere during September 2006 (Unit: day)
China
During September 2006, total area of snow cover was slightly below normal in
China, with near normal in the Northeast and below normal in northern Xinjiang and
the Tibet Plateau (Fig.3).
For the month, no snow cover was observed in China. Negative anomalies of
NDSC was -5~-15 days at western side of the Tibet Plateau ( Fig.4 )
Remark: Original data are from http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/snow/.
Analyst: Climate System Diagnostics and Prediction Division/National Climate Center/CMA
Climatologic fields are from the 1973-2002 base period means.
Reference
[1]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
(a) China
Fig. 3 Regional Snow Cover Anomaly Indices (Unit: 104km2)
(b) Tibet Plateau (c) Northern Xinjiang (d) Northeast China
Fig.4 Number of Days with Snow Cover (left) and Anomalies (right)
in China during September 2006 (Unit: day)