Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
..The Arctic sea ice entered record-low territory this month after a faster-than-usual refreeze in late September and early October. “The thinned and broken ice across the central Arctic basin was able to refreeze rapidly as temperatures cooled after the sea ice minimum,” noted Zachary Labe (University of California, Irvine), a doctoral studentrecently profiled by Climate Central. Labe thinks the slower-than-usual growth of sea ice over the last few days is in large part due to very warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for the time of year. The record-warm air temperatures currently slathering the Arctic are not only associated with an atmospheric blocking pattern, but also related to the warm oceans themselves, Labe noted. “The air-ocean heat exchange from the open water is helping to modify the cold air near the surface, in addition to the release of latent heat as sea ice refreezes. The warm SSTs are really acting to prevent the sea ice to expand, especially into the Beaufort, Chukchi, and East Siberian Seas.”
Labe is even more impressed by the very low ice thickness and volume, as estimated by computer models that reproduce the ice in three dimensions. “I think this will become a bigger story,” he said. “The Arctic ice is looking incredibly thin, which is to be expected from such warmth in both the air and ocean.”
the anomalies in svalbard have been so extreme that the graph for the daily average temperature (1961-1990) barely is visible within the bar-graph for daily maximum and minimum temperatures.
almost certainly a result of the unprecedented low sea-ice cover.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
