Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall

While the Arctic region has been warming strongly in recent decades, anomalously large snowfall in recent winters has affected large parts of North America, Europe, and east Asia. Here we demonstrate that the decrease in autumn Arctic sea ice area is linked to changes in the winter Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation that have some resemblance to the negative phase of the winter Arctic oscillation. However, the atmospheric circulation change linked to the reduction of sea ice shows much broader meridional meanders in midlatitudes and clearly different interannual variability than the classical Arctic oscillation. This circulation change results in more frequent episodes of blocking patterns that lead…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 0838920
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 41176169
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Awards: 2011CB309704, 2009CB421406
• OO
  Office of Polar Programs