North Pole rainfall 'bizarre': climatologist

www.cbc.ca...

Quote from source:
Spring showers are next to non-existent in the High Arctic, so Environment Canada's senior climatologist says he's baffled to hear that it rained near the North Pole this week.

A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday.

Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry," Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.

"I mean, it really is strange. You just don't expect it to rain in the High Arctic in April; maybe in July and August. And certainly for these scientists from Europe coming over, they must have been also mystified."

Phillips said 50 to 60 years of historical weather data show no signs of rainfall ever occurring in April in the High Arctic.

The earliest account of measurable rainfall at Canadian Forces Station Alert took place on May 21, 1988, he said.

At a weather station on Ellef Ringnes Island, where the scientists were conducting their experiments, Phillips said the earliest measured rainfall was on June 7, 1975.

This is odd. I thought it was neat so I thought I would share it with all of you. An interesting story. Wonder how propaganda will spin this into anything about global warming.

Interesting to see how this will effect the ice or maybe it will just freeze and add to the ice sheet? I don't know...

Any thoughts?

Pred...

reply to post by predator0187


My god...
the times, they are a changin'

rain at the pole

hahahaha

does that give new credence to the adage

when hell freezes over ???

It's one of those "Hadda be there" things.

You literally had to be there for those 3 minutes.

Is it possible that for 3 minutes every april over the past 50 to 60 years, there is no one there to witness rain?

Originally posted by Atlantican
Is it possible that for 3 minutes every april over the past 50 to 60 years, there is no one there to witness rain?

It's possible, but they do keep fairly precise records up there: lots of high powered radar that would detect it.

Personally I would say that this is probably related to the ash column from the Icelandic Volcano seeding the clouds. Rain in the Arctic is a bad sign, however I don't think it's something to lose sleep over.

If this happened and there was no volcanic activity I'd be concerned, for now at least though I'd put money on on ash.

reply to post by [davinci]


Good theory. Never thought of the volcano being the cause.

I would think they have good tracking system of the weather up there and they would know if it rained.

Pred...

I also thought volcano dust, cloud seeding 101.

Nice post

reply to post by [davinci]


Good call on the volcano!!!

If anything a puny, nearly undetectable by even todays sensors 3 minute rain in the arctic is probably a good thing because when that rain hits the ice it will freeze quickly, replenishing the previous week's loss, if there was any...

Now if it was a torrential downpour for the full afternoon I would be surprised but still underwhelmed. Freak weather is known to happen everywhere. There's 100 - 500 year storms, quakes and other phenomena that are well off trend. Ask any insurance underwriter. Lol! Really the only thing that would matter to me is if this happened in the peak winter for a considerable duration. Even then it would be a freak incident more than likely.

I've got a feeling that sensors even 10 years ago might not even register a 3 minute sprinkle. Who knows though. Either way the fact that petrified tropical plants & trees have been found up around there in the past says to me that a little rainy season is ok every millennium or so.

Interesting... It's safe for me to say at this point that our weather has been significantly strange here in the northeast US over the past few years. Tornadoes, horrible ice storms, 90mph wind gusts in february, etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's interesting, but not surprising that the north pole is also experiencing strange weather patterns.




[edit on 7-5-2010 by samureyed]