After living in North Carolina for nearly a quarter of a century, I had forgotten what a winters worth of snow accumulation looks like. Feet and feet worth of the white stuff is what I found in Fairbanks Alaska when I arrived for my PolarTREC orientation. Talking with locals, I discovered that this has been a pretty typical year, both temperature and snowfall wise, in Fairbanks.

    Barn in Fairbanks
    Typical snow accumulations in Fairbanks Alaska

    Wait, What, haven’t we all heard the arctic is warming? Just because one location is experiencing normal temperatures, or for even that matter, below normal temperatures does not indicate climate change is not still occurring. Our extreme cold weather, that allowed me and others to ice climb areas in North Carolina that have not frozen in recent memories, is actually do to a warming in a region thousands of miles away from the parts of the lower 48 where it was irregularly cold this winter.

    Catawba Falls
    A rare 2 week cold snap caused the usually free flowing Catawba Falls to freeze.

    Why then did we have such a cold snap in North Carolina? Today, one of our guest lecturers was Dr. Jeremey May from Florida International University. Part of his presentation included a diagram of an undulating winter Jetstream over the United States. What is commonly referred to as the dropping of the polar vortex in the Lower 48 is actually a result of a weakening high-pressure system do to an overall warming throughout the entire Arctic. This high pressure system usually smooth’s out the Polar Jetstream that normally locks in extremely cold temperatures at higher latitudes, but when it weakens the troughs of that undulating Polar Jetstream can bring Continental Arctic air to North Carolina and other areas south of the Polar regions.

    Comments

    Allyson Woodard

    Wow, love the photo of the frozen falls. Looking forward to following your expedition :)

    Keith Smith

    Thanks, I cannot wait to go!  This has been such a great week.

    From: PolarTREC
    To:
    Sent: 3/28/2018 9:17 AM
    Subject: Re: Melissa Lau commented on 27 March 2018 When Normal is Irregular

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    Keith Smith

    Thanks!  Been great getting to know you and the rest of the team, I am also really psyched to follow everyone!

    From: PolarTREC
    To:
    Sent: 3/28/2018 9:24 AM
    Subject: Re: Allyson Woodard commented on 27 March 2018 When Normal is Irregular

    (

    Guest

    What was it like to climb Catawba falls while it was frozen?

    Keith Smith

    It felt like a once in a lifetime event! The best part was you could still here the water flowing behind the frozen ice.

    Evan Lesser

    How much fun was it.

    Eli Otero

    what is the average amount of snowfall in Alaska?

    Gabriel Perez

    Hope you have fun.

    tash

    what was the most death defying experience you have had while climbing

    Melissa Lau

    Such a "cool" entry! I can't wait to see your antarctic adventures!