BornFromTheVoid

Russian Arctic sea's have flatlined in the last 10 days and are back below 2012. Without a significant acceleration in growth, 2020 will be back to the lowest values in a week.

Russian Arctic sea's have flatlined in the last 10 days and are back below 2012. Without a significant acceleration in growth, 2020 will be back to the lowest values in a week.

It sinks below the relatively cool and fresh surface waters, which maintains the Arctic halocline. Several papers have now noted that these Atlantic waters are getting ever closer to the surface along the Siberian Seas, partially because the reduced sea ice cover allows the winds and tides to more effectively mix things up

Here's the slow sea ice concentration animation for the last week. Regionally, big gains in Hudson Bay and along the Atlantic edge, mixed changes in Baffin, slight losses in Chukchi and big losses in the Kara Sea.

Here's the slow sea ice concentration animation for the last week. Regionally, big gains in Hudson Bay and along the Atlantic edge, mixed changes in Baffin, slight losses in Chukchi and big losses in the Kara Sea.

A week of NSIDC extent changes Weekly change is +361,000 km² (81-10 avg: 456,000 km²) Started 2nd lowest, finished 2nd lowest. Largest gains in Hudson Bay followed by the Atlantic edge, mixed changes in Baffin and Chukchi Seas, and a large loss in the Kara Sea.

A week of NSIDC extent changes Weekly change is +361,000 km² (81-10 avg: 456,000 km²) Started 2nd lowest, finished 2nd lowest. Largest gains in Hudson Bay followed by the Atlantic edge, mixed changes in Baffin and Chukchi Seas, and a large loss in the Kara Sea.

The daily NSIDC extent remains 2nd lowest on record to the 18th, 594,000 km² above the lowest year, 2016. The last 5 days have seen substantial gains in Hudson Bay balanced by losses in the Kara sea, causing the centred 5 day mean increase to drop below average.

The daily NSIDC extent remains 2nd lowest on record to the 18th, 594,000 km² above the lowest year, 2016. The last 5 days have seen substantial gains in Hudson Bay balanced by losses in the Kara sea, causing the centred 5 day mean increase to drop below average.

Latest PIOMAS data is out. 2020 is currently 2nd lowest, barely above 2016. Looking at the regional differences, 2020 is quite far behind the 2 other lowest years in the Laptev Sea and in the Central Arctic. It has more in the Beaufort Sea though, and to a lesser extent, Kara and Baffin

In recent years there's been a lot of discussion about weather patterns getting stuck more frequently. Is the weather actually changing, or is it media hype? And, if it really is changing, do we have any clues as to why? Read the full article

Slow sea ice growth animation from November 6th to 13th

Slow animation of the sea ice growth from November 6th to 13th.

I assume this is what's being referred to. Quite a few straws in there for us to clutch!

Nothing significant about it, I just chose 30 years because it's the standard climatology timeframe and a short enough to make the animation easy and small. The seasonal composites go back to 1948, and other data sets do the whole 20th century. I might do a longer term one another day.

Here's a quick animation highlighting the change in October temperatures in the eastern Arctic from 1991 to 2020.

Although still growing at a well above average pace, the record breaking sea ice growth phase has come to an end for now. Massive +ve surface temp anomalies are predicted for the coming week, so it looks like the CAA, Baffin and Hudson Bay might be the main areas for accelerating ice growth

Ok folks, a few things to keep in mind. First, we try to keep climate change discussions to the climate area. When climate discussions occur outside it usually derails the thread and the topic at hand gets buried. Yes, there will be some 'skeptics' that put the reality of the rapidly diminishing Arctic situation to the back of their minds and come here for the big number gains to feel better, but that's not breaking any rules. Second, if you have an issue with a post you have 2 options: a - report it or message a moderator if you think it breaks any rules b - refute it and/or provide alternative evidence If you go with option "b", make sure to keep things civil and on topic. Others are welcome to pick out the stats that suit their viewpoint, or try to post objective analysis of the short term sea ice situation in here. Similarly, feel free to talk about the climate side of things in the climate area too. For something on topic:

It's probably close to a record for November (will check more tomorrow), but we've gotten much closer in August and September this year and in previous years. I've been working on an analysis related to this, creating a time series of distance from the N. Pole to open water, but haven't had much time for it recently. Below is an image I mapped out the distance for all previous minima every 5 degrees. The problem is that the closest distance can occur from August through to September, so a single day isn't ideal. From the annual minima at least, the closest we've gotten was 350 km in 2012. Even this year got within 500 km of the N. Pole a few times in early September, just not on the actual day of the minimum.

With the rapid increases still ongoing (5 gains over 200k so far) it's easy to not notice other interesting things. The Atlantic ice edge has pushed northward quite quickly, dropping the minimum distance to the N. Pole from 800km on Nov 1st to 710km yesterday

Still 2nd lowest with the NSIDC data, and just recorded the 5th 200k+ daily gain of the refreeze season so far

The very latest

That's the latest I have. I suspect the update yesterday (which was to the 4th) was an error as it was identical to the previous day. So hopefully, later this afternoon I'll have a version updated to the 4th or 5th.

3rd warmest October on record going by the Copernicus data, and warmest October for Europe. The last time a month wasn't in the top 5 warmest on record globally was February 2014 - 81 months ago! https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-october-2020