Precipitation decrease in the western Arctic, with special emphasis on Barrow and Barter Island, Alaska

Abstract

Over the Arctic during the last few decades a decrease in annual precipitation and snow depths have been observed; this decrease is especially pronounced during the winter months. This decrease was not only found over northern Alaska but also over the high latitude Canadian stations and Russian drift stations. Further, satellite monitoring of North America snow cover has revealed a significant decreasing trend in mid‐spring cover since 1972. The temperature increased during the last few decades in the Arctic, hence the simplest explanation—normally increased temperature leads to high precipitation—is not valid. A causal explanation for these trends had been related to the shift of the Aleutian low and Arctic high. This study, with special emphasis on the surface observation data from Barrow and Barter Island, indicates: (i) not only the frequency, but the mean intensity of precipitation has decreased; (ii) the amount of total cloud cover, and in particular, low cloudiness, has decreased with time; (iii) sea‐level pressure did not show any significant trends. Variability in atmospheric pressure, however, decreased with time, suggesting that either the intensity and/or frequency of cyclones has decreased; (iv) a shift in seasonal resultant winds at Barrow has been observed. © 1998 Royal Meteorological Society

Wintertime temperature anomalies in Alaska correlated with ENSO and PDO

“…Note that since 1992 temperatures at Barrow (as well as at Prudhoe Bay: a co-operative climate station which began collecting data in 1986), have once again risen substantially. Whether this is a long-term trend remains to be determined (see Kelley et al, 1982; for historical review Curtis et al, 1998).…”

On the Precipitation and Precipitation Change in Alaska

“…Numerous climatological studies have been carried out in Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), the most northern point in North America [8][9][10][11]. These measurements were frequently carried out with support from the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Utqiaġvik, as well as several Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) stations that were established in northern Alaska in the early 1950s.…”

The relationship between subsurface hydrology and dissolved carbon fluxes for a sub-arctic catchment

“…These include decreasing depth and duration of snowcover (Brown and Braaten, 1998;Curtis et al, 1998), permafrost warming and thawing (Stieglitz et al, 2003;Walvoord and Striegl, 2007;Osterkamp, 2007), increasing precipitation frequency and amount (Walsh, 2000; Correspondence to: S. W. Lyon (steve.lyon@natgeo.su.se) McCabe et al, 2001), increasing freshwater discharge (Peterson et al, 2002) and earlier spring flood peak discharges . The terrestrial freshwater cycle in the arctic and sub-arctic is often intimately connected with the presence of permafrost (White et al, 2007;Woo et al, 2008) and the depth to the permafrost largely determines the pathways of water flow through the landscape (Kane et al, 1981).…”