The 2016 snow melt season is nearly over now. It goes by very quickly and is usually done in a few weeks in June. Conditions this year were initially a bit strange. There was really not very much snow and things started to brown very fast once the melt began in early June. The West River was flowing by June 6, which is almost the earliest we have seen since 2003 (2005 was the earliest, by a day. Similar limited snow cover). What was unusual was that we had several days of heavy rain in early June just as the melt was starting. Aside from the shear discomfort of driving rain and wind on snow machines, this is an unprecedented event in our time at Cape Bounty, and rain is very important as it usually really speeds up snow melt because the rain has a lot of heat in it. We'll have to wait for the numbers to say what the real effect was, but a strange start to the season.
Here are some photographs to compare how much the timing of snow melt has changed over the years.
In 2003, when we started, snow melt peaked around
July 3. This is what the East River looked like on June 27 as flow was just starting:
In 2005, snow melt peaked around June 8. Here is the East River (looking towards the lake) on June 10.
The difference in spring snow melt has been nearly a month over the period we have worked at Cape Bounty. That may not sound like much, but consider that the melt season usually only lasts until late August. In warm years (like 2005, and so far 2016), the melt season is nearly 50% longer.
So is 2016 really going to be a record warm year in the Arctic? Some recent research suggests that we should not necessarily expect this, but it is not a simple answer as you will see.
