Lake Ice and 
Snow Science 
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WHY STUDY LAKE ICE AND SNOW?

Changes in Arctic Air Temperatures

There is evidence from ice cores, lake cores and tree rings that indicate that the earth’s temperature has been slowly warming over the last 400 years. Satellite data also show a surface temperature warming trend. In the past 30 years, winter temperatures have increased by 6°C in parts of Alaska and northern Eurasia.

Click here to learn more about Alaska's changing climate.

Surface Temperature Anomolies from Jan-Sept 2001

Source: NASA.

The figure above shows how much air temperatures near the Earth’s surface changed relative to the global mean temperature from 1951 to 1980. Red and orange colors indicate higher temperatures especially in Northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia(deeper reds). The blue shades for negative numbers represent cooling.

Arctic temperature anomolies

Graph of temGraph of temperature deviations in the Arctic from 1900-2002
This image shows the winter temperature trend in the Arctic from 1966 to 1995. The scale is in degrees Celsius per decade.

Source: NASA.
These data show the deviation of the mean annual Arctic temperature from the long term normal annual temperature from 1990-2002. Compare this graph with the Nenana Ice Classic data.