Hi All,

Well I am leaving for Copenhagen, London and New York City.

But first a few photos from Nuuk.

Winter in Approach?


Looking in...


Just another Balcony view...


Two first with K10D and FA*24, third is K10D and DA14.

Thanks for looking

[foxglove]

But Nuuk is on the Labrador coast side of Greenland where the northern current from the arctic (Labrador current) comes down between the two land masses. If that temp graph is accurate then I'm puzzled as well.

It's because Sudbury's inland, and Nuuk's on the coast. Have a look at Environment Canada's climate normals for Halifax - for example, January average high (1971-2000) is -1.2, average low, -10.7. Warmer than Ontario, entirely because of the ocean. Same story for Nuuk, but it's colder there than Halifax because of being further north. Comparing Sudbury and Nuuk is a little like comparing apples and oranges, because of the moderating influence of the ocean. At least that's my understanding of it, I'm sure if I'm wrong, someone will correct me!

Julie

[foxglove]

wow, 20 C is like what we usually get as a high here in winter...

It's normally around 10 or 11 for a high at this time of year. Winter... usually below freezing. Throw in some wind chill, and you can have some lovely weather. Try -25 C with a windchill making it feel like -35 or so! Luckily that doesn't happen too often.

Julie

[J.Scott]

It's not that I am ready to move to Nuuk in January but it appears to be much more tolerable than our miserable winters. I admit I am becoming a wuss. I have to work outside every single day I work; it's just the nature of the job. A lot of the time we work on ladders and with bare fingers and it gets damned cold! The last few years I have tried to take at least 4 weeks off in January and February because it is so bitter cold.

I am not a meteorologist but I think your explanation of the coastal effect is reasonable. Since none other was offered I guess I'll have to go with it.

[Duplo]

All fascinating images, Thomas. The colorful buildings and snow covered roofs in the first image are especially interesting. Are buildings in Greenland typically that colorful or did you add color during post processing?

Of course, nice to see your gf again in the second image. She always enhances the attractiveness of your images.

And, finally, the auroras are simply spectacular. Would really love to see those myself.

stewart

Thank you Stewart.
The buildings are very typical Greenlandic, no colouring on my part.
Yep I think she shines up my photos a lot too... this one without knowing it

I hope you will some day.

Ok - I just checked out Nuuk on Wickipedia and discovered you have a much milder winter climate than we have. Nuuk is 240 km. from the Arctic Circle and I am thousands of kms away. Check out the average temps. My question is simply this; why does Nuuk enjoy milder winters when it is geographically much further north than central Ontario (Canada)? We enjoy warmer summer temperatures but your winters seem temperate compared to us.

First chart is Nuuk and second one is Sudbury.

We do have unstable weather, very unstable... unfortunately charts like that are not of much use, even within nukk we often have temperature differences on 4 to 5C on a regular pasis. Secondly we are poised by regular storms, called "foehn wind" they mess up every kind of statistics. During those storms I have seen our thermometer go from -18C to +11C within an hour. and from no wind to 40 meters per second in an instant. pretty scary...

But central Nuuk is pretty mild, I would however not call those figures representative...

That one keeps jumping out at me as my favourite. It is just a nice juxtaposition, the summer barbecue covered in snow and ice

I like it a lot too

My first thought was it's a simple answer and the reason that England and Ireland are so green and warm. The Gulf stream moderates the temperatures in many parts of the North Atlantic. Ireland is much farther north than Nova Scotia with much warmer temps as well and the Gulf Stream causes this. NS gets some thick fog because of this very warm water. But Nuuk is on the Labrador coast side of Greenland where the northern current from the arctic (Labrador current) comes down between the two land masses. If that temp graph is accurate then I'm puzzled as well.

Well I think you are right, that and that "tiny" lump of ice in the middle makes a big difference.

The graphs are pretty accurate averages, see my reply above for an explanation, having foehn winds does however not make it a representative picture.

It's because Sudbury's inland, and Nuuk's on the coast. Have a look at Environment Canada's climate normals for Halifax - for example, January average high (1971-2000) is -1.2, average low, -10.7. Warmer than Ontario, entirely because of the ocean. Same story for Nuuk, but it's colder there than Halifax because of being further north. Comparing Sudbury and Nuuk is a little like comparing apples and oranges, because of the moderating influence of the ocean. At least that's my understanding of it, I'm sure if I'm wrong, someone will correct me!

Julie

Well that and the fact that within the Nuuk area we do have significant differences as well, where I live we are on average 3-4 degrees cooler than where the weather station is.

and walk an hour into the mountains and well things looks totally different as well.
There is a ridge between where I live "Nuussuaq" and Nuuk appearently that is enough to make a difference.
Kangerlussuaq where I spend a lot of time is totally different again, they had -15C when I made my last ground stop there this monday.

[Duplo]

It's not that I am ready to move to Nuuk in January but it appears to be much more tolerable than our miserable winters. I admit I am becoming a wuss. I have to work outside every single day I work; it's just the nature of the job. A lot of the time we work on ladders and with bare fingers and it gets damned cold! The last few years I have tried to take at least 4 weeks off in January and February because it is so bitter cold.

I am not a meteorologist but I think your explanation of the coastal effect is reasonable. Since none other was offered I guess I'll have to go with it.

Well define tollerable. I love our winters... but then again I work mainly inside, when not doing photography or snowboarding