southern Newfoundland, particularly in St. 

 John's, which was on the threshold of the 

 snowiest winter in its history. A well- 

 defined negative phase of the North 

 Atlantic Oscillation was in place with the 

 attendant southward displacement of the 

 North Atlantic storm track (Wagner, 2001). 

 During the second half of the month, a 

 series of strong storms passed over 

 Newfoundland, bringing high winds and 

 record December snowfall amounts to St. 

 John's. Newfoundland's air temperatures 

 for the month of December averaged about 

 2°C above normal. Along Newfoundland's 

 Northern Peninsula, much warmer than 

 normal air temperatures and storm-force 

 winds delayed freeze-up by two weeks. 



January 2001 



The North Atlantic storm track 

 remained far south of its normal position in 

 January, which caused a series of storms 

 to pass just south of the Avalon Peninsula. 

 Despite prevailing moderate northwesterly 

 winds and air temperatures that averaged 

 about 1°C colder than normal in 

 Newfoundland, conditions that generally 

 favor sea ice expansion, it grew slowly. 

 The strong wind associated with the storms 

 was the limiting factor in the expansion of 

 the sea ice extent. Thus, by month's end, 

 the ice growth was about two weeks slower 

 than normal. 



On 20 January, a CIS 

 reconnaissance flight found 13 visually 

 confirmed icebergs and nine radar targets 

 in the sea ice along the Labrador coast 

 north of 55°N. During the last week of 

 January, Ice Patrol deployed its pre- 

 season Ice Reconnaissance Detachment 

 to Canada. The intent of the IRD was to 

 monitor the progress of the icebergs 

 toward the Grand Banks to help determine 

 the start date for the season and to test 

 MP's new SLAR display system (MSS 



5000). Two survey patrols (28 and 30 

 January) located 20 icebergs south of 

 Cape Chidley, the southernmost of which 

 was at 50°-10'N and 51°-21'W. Thus, 

 based on very limited aerial ice 

 reconnaissance, the January population of 

 icebergs appeared sparse. No icebergs 

 passed south of 48°N during the month. 



February 



The weather in Newfoundland was 

 again dominated by a series of storms that 

 passed through the province. Although 

 mean air temperatures for the month were 

 approximately normal, with mean west and 

 northwest winds, the stormy conditions 

 continued to slow the expansion of the ice 

 edge. During the first week of the month, 

 the southern sea ice edge reached Cape 

 Freels. By mid-month the ice edge was 

 not as far south as normal nor as far east, 

 reaching the vicinity of Cape Bonavista 

 during the third week of February, about 

 two weeks later than normal. By the end of 

 the month, the southern sea ice extent was 

 well less than normal. During the last 

 week of the month the eastern ice edge 

 began a dramatic retreat westward. 



A series of reconnaissance flights, 

 conducted in good visibility conditions by 

 CIS and Provincial Airlines in mid- 

 February, documented a sparse population 

 of icebergs in the sea ice along the 

 southern Labrador coast and in northeast 

 Newfoundland waters (Figure 15). 

 International Ice Patrol deployed its first Ice 

 Reconnaissance Detachment on 28 

 February 2001. 



On 26 February, the easternmost 

 observed iceberg for the 2001 ice year was 

 reported by the National Ice Center at 48°- 

 08.4'N and 46°-15'W. The easternmost 

 predicted iceberg position for 



16 



