Arctic sea ice at record low for this time of year

[JackRT]

Although 2020 didn't go lower than the absolute minimum set in 2012, the ice has been slower to reform, so that it is currently at a record low.

The effect seems strongest in Siberia.

Arctic ice is seasonal. It melts down in the summer sun and relative warmth, then freezes back up when fall’s chill comes. Or at least, it should be that way. But right now it’s late October, and the ice in Siberia’s Laptav Sea still hasn’t refrozen. It’s the latest ice-free date the sea has seen in recorded history and is driving Arctic sea ice as a whole to its lowest point on record for this time of year.

 

[JackRT]

Almost all of the old multi year sea ice is now gone. As a result the ice is melting quicker each spring and refreezing later each fall in a cascading effect. Projections are that by mid century there will no longer be any sea ice left at the summer minimum. But global warming is a fraud.

 

[Ophiolite]

Lief Erikson called it Greenland as a ploy to recruit settlers to establish a new colony. At that time only a tiny portion of Greenland on the south west coast was in any way green. It is actually much greener today. They are now able to grow hay and hardy crops like potatoes, carrots and turnips but they are not yet self sufficient in food.

You beat me to it. Erikson was pretty much a medieval realtor, with the same attention to descriptive truth.

 

[Shemjaza]

You beat me to it. Erikson was pretty much a medieval realtor, with the same attention to descriptive truth.

I think there might be a kind of ironic joking to it too.

The sort of Scandinavians who colonised Iceland and Greenland were often outcasts and losers who were welcome in the Nordic kingdoms of the mainland.

 

[essentialsaltes]

NASA link. Extent and area are minimum or tie the minimum measured on July 8.

Current (3/16/22) data are very similar. Both Arctic and Antarctic ice are near all time lows for this date.

As for the current weather:

Record ‘bomb cyclone’ bringing exceptional warmth to North Pole
Arctic temperatures could approach the melting point as they surge nearly 50 degrees above normal

Temperatures averaged over the high Arctic north of 80 degrees latitude are about 25 degrees (14 Celsius) above normal. Some forecast models indicate small areas in the Arctic, including near the North Pole, could experience temperatures as much as 45 to 54 degrees (25 to 30 Celsius) above normal Wednesday and Thursday.

In Hopen, an island off Svalbard in the Barents Sea at 76 degrees north latitude, the temperature recently hit 39 degrees (3.9 Celsius), its highest March temperature on record.

[A bomb cyclone is the root cause.]

The cyclone formed along the U.S. East Coast on Friday and Saturday, unleashing heavy snow and strong winds. Next, on Sunday and Monday, it tore through Atlantic Canada, where its pressure plummeted to that found at the core of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Then it swept toward Greenland.

“It appears that a new record has been set for lowest pressure on record anywhere in Greenland at 934.1 hPa measured at the [Danish Meteorological Institute] station at Ikermiuarssuk,” Mottram said. The pressure reading hasn’t been officially certified as a record, but Mottram notes that it is consistent with other observations and model forecasts.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Record ‘bomb cyclone’ bringing exceptional warmth to North Pole
Arctic temperatures could approach the melting point as they surge nearly 50 degrees above normal

And at the other end as well!

It’s 70 degrees warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica. Scientists are flabbergasted.
‘This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system,’ one expert said

The average high temperature in Vostok — at the center of the eastern ice sheet — is around minus-63 (minus-53 Celsius) in March. But on Friday, the temperature leaped to zero (minus-17.7 Celsius), the warmest it’s been there during March since record keeping began 65 years ago. It broke the previous monthly record by a staggering 27 degrees (15 Celsius).

Eastern Antarctica’s Concordia research station, operated by France and Italy and about 350 miles from Vostok, climbed to 10 degrees (minus-12.2 Celsius), its highest temperature on record for any month of the year. Average high temperatures in March are around minus-56 (minus-48.7 Celsius).

Keller and Lazzara said in an email that such a high temperature is particularly noteworthy since March marks the beginning of autumn in Antarctica, rather than January, when there is more sunlight. At this time of year, Antarctica is losing about 25 minutes of sunlight each day.

Wille said the warm conditions over Antarctica were spurred by an extreme atmospheric river, or a narrow corridor of water vapor in the sky, on its east coast. According to computer models, the atmospheric river made landfall on Tuesday between the Dumont d’Urville and Casey Stations and dropped an intense amount of rainfall, potentially causing a significant melt event in the area.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Antarctic sea ice at new record low, two years running.

The sea ice that fringes Antarctica dropped to just 737,000 square miles (1.91 million square kilometers) on February 13, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC, below the previous record of 741,000 square miles (1.92 million square kilometers) set on February 25 last year.

Sea ice could still shrink further; the lowest level of the southern summer may not be reached for more than a week.

The last two years mark the only time that sea ice levels have dipped below 2 million square kilometers since satellites began monitoring it in 1978.

Unlike the Arctic, where the rate of sea ice loss has followed a fairly consistent downward trajectory as climate change accelerates, Antarctic sea ice extent has swung up and down, making it harder to figure out how the continent and its surrounding ocean are responding to global heating. [So the recent steep downward trend may be a sign that Antarctic ice is no longer partly insulated from climate change.]

 

[Halbhh]

Yes, someone daring to live on the florida coast should probably just enjoy it while they can, not trying to hang on too desperately if the sudden change suggested by this finding arrives:

Rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in the pre-satellite era - Nature Geoscience

The Thwaites Glacier grounding zone has experienced sustained pulses of rapid retreat over the past two centuries, according to sea floor observations obtained by an autonomous underwater vehicle.

www.nature.com

That's a bit like life: gradual change for so many years, but then if you happen to know an old person there's this sudden transition where they just fall apart in a few years.

Of course, people who get that even worse is coming will try to hang on to what little they have -- they got flooded before, and know worse is on the way, but they wish to remain like...in 1970 or something... -- but it's wiser to move to higher ground while one can in a way, because a person doesn't really have to go down with the ship, if they'd swim to the life preserver. (interesting parallel: that's why Christ came, like a coast guard rescue ship, to throw us a rope, and rescue those that can trust him enough to accept the offer)