Snow on Mars and our September Summary

Snow!
Have you noticed the widget on the right side of this blog reporting weather conditions from the Phoenix lander on Mars. It's the Canadian contribution to the mission, and not considered to be biased after reporting snow early in the week. That's right, snow on Mars! There is a polar ice cap, which was thought to be made up of mostly Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide, but this mission is on a search for water and the basic building blocks for life. You can find more in this link.
This image is from one of the digs when the Phoenix uncovered (or can we say unmarsed?) apparent snow just under the surface. This snow report came out on June 20th.


Back on Earth...
Fairbanks, Alaska had their first 1 inch of snow for the season. After record snowfall in Alaska last winter, this round of snow arrived about 2 weeks ahead of normal.
Marquette, Michigan has snow in the forecast for the hills away from Lake Superior tonight. I'm jealous, but will wait at least until November until I start sharpening the edges on my snow board.

Is it me, or did September seem chilly? Not like the snow now in the forecast for Marquette Michigan, but an abrupt end to summer. In fact I remember blogging about some leaves turning in PA on Labor Day Weekend. Well, as it turns out, September in Baltimore averaged temperatures above normal- thanks in part to three 90F+ days in the first week. However, we have not had an 80F day since September 21st (nearly two weeks). Rainfall was almost twice the norm with Tropical Storm Hanna passing on the 6th, and the remnants of that no name storm last week. The wet weather can take the credit for our warmer than normal month. That is due to cloud cover and moist soil that tends to hold the overnight temperatures up a little higher- skewing the overall numbers.
Here is the breakdown:






With this chilly start to October, it will be interesting to see how this month ends up. I am sticking with my earlier projection for another warm up. Typically, this early surge of below normal temperatures will not last. The upper level patter does show a sign of a change trying to develop next week. This is temperature map at 850mb (about 5,000 ft) for Monday evening. The battle developing here is the shift in the ridge of High Pressure from the Ohio Valley, and a trough of Low Pressure coming out of
Colorado and entering Nebraska. That means a warm up for the northern plains, and a return to normal for the Mid Atlantic coast. I will be watching the strong flow and blocking pattern in the North Atlantic, which has allowed a steady flow of cool air down from Eastern Canada. Next week will determine if we can shake that by the middle of October. That cool flow in Canada is what tends to be leading the charge in what could be an early arrival of winter. Another outlook I am holding on to. Stay tuned...