Recent Winter Easterly QBO and Stratospheric Warming Events
11/04/2025, 2:39 pm EST
Climate Impact Company Winter 2025-26 Outlook Adjusted Colder, Especially East in January
11/07/2025, 4:30 am EST
Climate Impact Company Daily Feature
Issued: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Highlight: October 2025 snow cover below normal in North America/above normal across Eurasia.
Fig. 1-2: North America October snow cover for 1967-2025 and the October 2021-2025 500 MB anomaly pattern for the northern hemisphere.
Fig. 3-4: Eurasia October snow cover for 1967-2025 and sea ice extent analysis from mid-October 2025.
Discussion: The North America snow cover was below normal during OCT-25 (Fig. 1). The OCT-25 snow cover observation for North America is the lowest since 2005 and 6th lowest in the period of record (POR). Several years in the current decade have yielded below normal snow cover during October as warm high pressure has dominated Canada much of this decade during mid-autumn (Fig. 2). The Eurasia streak of above normal snow cover observed during October extends to 15 consecutive years (Fig. 3). After much above normal snow cover during last decade observed in mid-autumn for Eurasia (and North America) the strength of the positive snow cover anomaly is moderate in this decade. A primary contributor to early season Eurasia snows is caused by cold wind extending across open ocean (Fig. 4) north of Eurasia creating advection snows. Is October snow cover a good predictor of early winter (December) snow cover (needed to cause colder than normal climate)? Not really. Half of the December’s of the past 10 years yielded moderately below normal snow cover across Eurasia while in this decade, North America has observed moderate to much below normal snow cover in 3 of the 5 years.