Monday, March 9, 2015

Faking snow in Fortitude: how global warming affected a television thriller


I've been watching the new television show, Fortitude and was keen to know where it was filmed. The scenery is magnificent. Cold snow and ice and Arctic. It turns out it was filmed partly on the east coast of Iceland and partly on sets in London.

My search for the filming location took me to this article in The Guardian and a curious piece of global warming trivia:
Although they believed they had found the perfect isolated Icelandic location to double for Fortitude, for the first time since records began there was no snow on the ground during the six weeks of scheduled winter filming. The production company had to bring in fake snow to cover the landscape. 

BTW, if you enjoy a good thriller, watch out for this one. It not only has great actors and terrific music score, the setting is fabulous, and it throws in some science as an extra treat :)

18 comments:

  1. When they have to start importing snow into Iceland in winter it kind of tells you something.

    Also, the Russians are reporting their warmest winter on record: http://tass.ru/en/non-political/780560

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, but it was cold in the northeast US! So there.

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    2. Umm... So?

      Western Canada has been positively balmy. Not the usual -40, nope. Its been walking weather all winter. I suppose you could say they need to fake it here.

      And how about that sauna vortex in Australia?

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    3. Same thing here in Montana. It's been spring here since the first week on January.

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  2. There is a big sled dog race starting today in Alaska, the Iditarod. Historically it has started just north of Anchorage, but there is no snow on most of the route from Anchorage to Nome, so they have moved the start to Fairbanks. In order to have snow in Anchorage for the ceremonial start over the weekend, they had to truck it in.

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    Replies
    1. It's been so warm here this year that they had to move the start even farther downriver from the start in 2003. Normally the outflow from the coal powered power plant (ironically powering this keyboard) doesn't reach where the Iditarod started in 2003, but it's been so unseasonably warm that the ice is just too thin. Just a side note, on the way in today I noticed Dr. Kramm wasn't here yet. I bet he's at the start.

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    2. Probably still insisting that global warming is a hoax.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Breaking (literally!):

    Arctic Sea Ice Plunges to Record Low Extent for Late Winter

    I had been following the NSIDC daily extent closely since late last week, and it looked like it might peak early. But as of today, it's clear it did :-\

    Neven had a cautiously worded article on Friday as well:

    Mad max?

    Apparently, he was bitten before by calling the max too early, but I think he called it right this time...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny, Watts hasn't mentioned this :-).

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    2. Yipes. Using the infallible logic of Prof Inferno, this means we will have three simultaneous 'sea ice recoveries' to enjoy at some point later in the year.

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    3. I suspect it will only work if you tilt the graph!

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    4. It looking like March 2015 could be a record low extent - records being broken is always interesting.

      But yeah, the month is not over yet.

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    5. Don't expect NSIDC to call it for another ten days or so.

      But it is striking to see the current extent trend seven weeks ahead of the record low season, although the difference is only 6%.

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  4. Here is a complaint of warmth messing up skiing in Sweden.

    There is a map here of where it was warm in February.

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    Replies
    1. Just calling it "skiing" may upset some people in Sweden, Nick. ;-)
      It is about Vasaloppet, which has its own Wikipedia entry:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasaloppet

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    2. My friends who live in Stockholm have been complaining about how ridiculously warm it has been there all winter. It seems that much of the NH has been abnormally warm this winter, just not the US Northeast.

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  5. I suspect it will only work if you tilt the graph!

    ReplyDelete

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