Some April events and a followup

This bulletin continues our updates on the weather relating to the Breakup event of Ross Ice Shelf.


As noted in the previous bulletin the cooling effect of ACC in the southern Indian Ocean was largely cancelled this SH summer. The 3rd last Tropical Cyclone of the season in Southern Indian Ocean, that hit areas near Perth (Australia) as Category 4 two and a half weeks ago, and got extratropical before hitting New Zealand with winds of 200km/h, continued straight towards the Icebergs in Drake channel. The blockade of ACC was finally broken, with the icebergs spreading with the re-established ACC. A notable amount of ice was swept by the Falkalnd Current between Falkland isles and Argentina, it remains to be seen if this is enough to create an ocean ice bridge between the Isles and the continent later this winter. What we expect is that the ocean ice amount is large in southern Atlantic portion of the Antarctica. This likely will direct the polar cyclones powering ACC towards South African Republic and some notable snow events are expected there before the winter is over.

{{From the Agricultural Department:

As the cyclone season has brought copious amounts of water to Western Australia, it is likely advisable to plant during winter (may-jul), since the forecasts show a significant possibilty of light showers during the next spring (aug-sep) and the drier conditions are likely to return in the summer.}}

October Weather Report

"This bulletin continues our followups of the breakup event of WAIS that left a 200000km2 iceberg from Ross ice shelf floating on the path of Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The iceberg rotates slowly clockwise on the northwest side of the Antarctic Peninsula and the high ridge between Antarctic mainland and Patagonia continues to be strong. This has lead to the diversion of the ACC, it now goes along the path of Humbolt current. Chilean coast continues to freeze and dry up to the 20S parallel. On the Atlantic side of the Andies the Brasilian current reaches Falkland Islands raising the temperatures there up to 25 degrees celsius. Ships moving between the iceberg and Falkland are warned of sudden hurricane-force weather systems. Central Argentina continues to receive downpours as subtropical lows hit the cold high ridge. As a result of this diversion of Tropical Rain Belt the Peruvian forest areas are drying up, and the flow of Amazon has weakened by 80%. On the African side of South Atlantic, the Benguela current has warmed up by 6 degrees and the rains continue to batter Angola and Namibia. The diversion of ACC has cooled the southern equatorial current so colder than usual (~34C) temperatures are expected in the Indonesian-Australian areas shortly. This ends our current bulletin of the weather related to the breakup event."