Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,
June marks the end of my year as CMOS President. It has been an honour to serve in this role, which has been both eventful and rewarding, particularly over the last several months. I sincerely thank CMOS staff, Council, Executive, Centre Chairs, and Committee Chairs and members, for their support and for all their contributions to CMOS over the past year.
– By contributors from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the University of Québec at Montréal, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, World Meteorological Organization, Climate Prediction Center, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration –
Highlights
Warmer than normal surface air temperatures over Eurasia and the Arctic Ocean contributed to below to near normal ice conditions during the 2019-2020 winter across the entire Arctic.
– By contributors from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, World Meteorological Organization, Climate Prediction Center, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration –
And Summary of the 2020 Arctic Winter Season
CONTEXT
Arctic temperatures continue to warm at more than twice the global mean. Annual surface air temperatures over the last 4 years (2016–2019) in the Arctic (60°–85°N) have been the highest in the time series of observations for 1936-2019.
– By Bryan Smith –
How accurate are Canada’s weather records? The case of Ontario’s all-time record low temperature casts some doubt.
Canadians have free access to one of the most extensive climate databases in the world with data going back to 1840. However, despite efforts to quality-assure this data, suspicious values emerge from time to time among the millions of archived observations. The reasons for the occurrence of inaccurate data are numerous,
– By Kimberly Strong, CMOS President and Professor & Chair, Department of Physics, University of Toronto –
Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,
Over the last two months, we have all had to adjust to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and CMOS is no exception. In March, we monitored the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation on a daily basis, and on April 3, we decided to cancel the 54th Congress, which was scheduled for May 24-28 in Ottawa. This decision was based on the recommendations of local, provincial, and federal governments and public health agencies regarding actions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our communities.
– By D.G. Steyn, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., and Kyle Howe, Air Quality and Climate Change, Metro Vancouver Regional District, Burnaby, B.C. –
The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting many aspects of society globally, nationally and locally. The most direct effect is the human health tragedy of increased morbidity and mortality caused by the disease. Beyond that, the legislated curtailment of human movement to slow the spread of the virus has resulted in economies being placed in what has been called a “medically induced coma”. Closely associated with the sharp slowdown in economic activity has been the reduction in fossil fuel consumption from most source sectors.
– By Yimei Li, Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre, Environment and Climate Change Canada –
In recent years, wildfire smoke has become an increasingly alarming natural disaster in Western Canada. In 2017 and 2018, the British Columbia provincial government declared a state of emergency for two consecutive summers in response to the wildfire situation (1). These were the third and fourth declarations in history and the previous ones were in 1996 and 2003.
– By Phil Chadwick –
The title of this 2012 painting below, numbered 1260 in my artistic journey, is “Three Degrees”. That title might sound cryptic. Let me explain.
All air traffic was grounded over North America for three or four days after the terror attacks of 9/11 on September 11th, 2001. A couple of curious meteorologists investigated the impact of grounding those aircraft. They discovered that the skies were much clearer and that temperatures responded correspondingly.
– By Kimberly Strong, CMOS President and Professor & Chair, Department of Physics, University of Toronto –
Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,
As we go ‘to press’ with this issue of the CMOS Bulletin, Canada and the world are in the midst of major disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
