timing of the river thaw

Guest

Hi Max,

It sounds like all is going well in Zhigansk. I was wondering about the thawing of the River. Does the Lena consistently thaw around the first week of June? Historically, has the timing changed at all that would be consistent with global warming?

G

Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 43

Hi G!

That's a really good question, and at the moment I don't know the answer to it. But I'll try to find out by talking with the captain of the ship we use for sampling, Mikhael Suslov. Since his job is to set up Aids to Navigation (bouys, range marks, etc) on a 150 km stretch of the Lena River, and they can only do that after the ice disappears, I bet he has a good record of the date of breakup. And yes, it would be very interesting to see if the timing of breakup has gotten earlier as might be expected to result from global warming.

Thanks for the question!

Max