We are jumping from anomaly to anomaly. This year, the southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds (NLC) season is the earliest southern hemisphere season on record… tied with 2013. The 2016/17 southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds season started on November 17, 2016. This is, tied with 2013, the earliest southern hemisphere NLC season on record.
Not a surprise at all for scientists: “as the southern hemisphere polar stratospheric winds switched to their summer-like state quite early this year.” And why please? For example, the 2014/15 season was also totally strange. The clouds were much more variable, and there was an enormous decrease in cloud frequency 15 to 25 days after the summer solstice. But that’s when the clouds are usually most abundant… READ MORE
