September 12, 2021
The remnants of Hurricane Larry dropped abundant snowfall on Greenland simply as the summer season melt season was concerning an end.
Hurricanes are known for their harmful wind, rain, and storm surge. Hurricane Larry provided more than that. On September 12, 2021, the storms residues dropped plentiful snowfall on Greenland just as the summer melt season was concerning an end.
Snowfall amounts on that day are noticeable in the map above, as represented by the Goddard Earth Observing System ( GEOS) model. Snowfall amounts are revealed as millimeters of water, instead of snow depth, for the 24-hour period. Fifty millimeters of water is equivalent to about 200 millimeters (8 inches) of snow, presuming the snow has a density of 250 kilograms per cubic meter.
On September 12, 2021, the storms remnants dropped plentiful snowfall on Greenland just as the summertime melt season was coming to an end.
Snowfall amounts are revealed as millimeters of water, as opposed to snow depth, for the 24-hour period.” Such storms are rather rare,” stated Lauren Andrews, a glaciologist with NASAs Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. Far, Andrews stated, “It looks like 2021 will end up having an above typical surface area mass balance.”
Like other weather condition and climate models, GEOS uses mathematical equations that represent physical processes (like rainfall and cloud processes) to compute what the environment will do. Actual measurements of physical properties, like temperature level, wetness, and winds, are routinely folded into the design to keep the simulation as near determined reality as possible.
Through early September, Hurricane Larry took a trip northwest across the Atlantic Ocean reaching a peak strength of category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. It damaged as it turned north, staying well offshore of the U.S. East Coast, and after that made landfall as a category 1 storm over Newfoundland in eastern Canada on September 11.
Next, Larry reached Greenland on September 12 as a post-tropical storm, providing high winds and generous snowfall to the islands southeast and interior. Kulusuk and Tasiilaq saw winds gusts topping 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour and blizzard conditions were reported at Summit Station.
” Such storms are quite uncommon,” said Lauren Andrews, a glaciologist with NASAs Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. “They typically dissipate well prior to reaching as far north as Greenland. There have been similar storms, consisting of Noel in 2007 and Igor in 2010.”
Andrews also kept in mind that it is unusual to see such a high rate of snowfall so quickly after the end of the summer melt season, which happens each year from around May to early September. The current snowfall from ex-hurricane Larry could potentially stabilize out losses from melting throughout the summer, which included 3 notable melting events– 2 in July and one in August.
” It is a dramatic end to a season of extreme events throughout the Greenland ice sheet,” Andrews stated.
When the satellite data are fully processed, researchers will be able to gauge the state of Greenlands mass balance. A positive mass balance suggests that more snow was gotten than was lost through procedures such as melting and runoff. Up until now, Andrews said, “It appears like 2021 will wind up having an above typical surface area mass balance.”
Over the period of decades, however, Earths ice-covered areas have been losing more mass than they have actually been getting. Such losses are a significant factor to worldwide water level rise.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using GEOS-5 information from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC.