Atlantic Fisheries Research Document 1996/019

Overview of meteorological and sea ice conditions off Eastern Canada in 1995

By K.F. Drinkwater; R.G. Pettipas; W.M. Petrie

Abstract

A review of meteorological and sea ice conditions off eastern Canada during 1995 is presented. Annual air temperatures were near normal or above normal due to warm conditions during the spring, summer and autumn. This is in contrast to the cold conditions of recent years. Seasonally, the winter temperature anomalies were below normal but were not as cold as 1994 or the earlier 1990s. The cold air temperatures in winter are related to stronger northwest winds which carried Arctic air masses further south. The stronger winds resulted from an intensification of the Icelandic Low which was reflected in a high NAO index. The colder-than-normal winter air temperatures and accompanying stronger-than-normal northwest winds caused ice to form early, be of greater areal extent than normal and last longer off Newfoundland and southern Labrador. In addition, there were large numbers of icebergs reaching the Grand Banks in 1995, however, both ice extent and numbers of icebergs were less than observed last year. Ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Scotian Shelf generally appeared late and, in at least the northern half of the Gulf, left late. The extreme warming of the air over Davis Strait and Baffin Bay during the autumn was due to increased southerly winds associated with a high that developed over Greenland. In general, the moderating conditions from the very cold period of the early 1990s in northern areas that began last year have continued through 1995.

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