Carinthians Latest Arctic Ice Reports

[mezzacyclone]

Thats a much better picture than this time last year, good news :o

Yep! ¾ million more KM  ² of Ice from last years is excellent news,

NSIDC

[Optimus Prime]

Not only is the ice extent compared to last year shocking, but the cold pooling is too;

Big turnaround. Start of a climate shift back to cold or just a blip. Probably just a blip.

[carinthian]

Hi Carinthian,

A better picture of ice build up compared to this time last year.Note the advance of ice towards Spitszbergen.

Earlier ice formation the other side of the pole as well,compared to last year.

Regards,Phil.

Hi Phil, much better. No warm incurrsions into the Arctic this Autumn. Some rapid cooling soon to take place combined with sea ice formation.

C

[SMU]

Hi Phil, much better. No warm incurrsions into the Arctic this Autumn. Some rapid cooling soon to take place combined with sea ice formation.

C

Today was the first day that the sea ice growth slowed away from that sharp upwards curve....

S

[Iceberg]

Interesting satellite view today of the ice floes down the East Greenland coast. The ice appears much denser and broader than last year with older slabs of ice that have broken free from the main polar ice sheet. The East Greenland current now drives this further southwards along the coastline. Freezing temperatures now start to add to the volume of ice quickly. If you look carefully at the outer edge of the ice belt you will note the sea eddies traced out by slush and water mixture( pre 1979 this was counted as measured ice )

C

If there is more than 15% ice it will be counted today as well.

I agree that there is more ice currently than last year and long may it continue,but there is less ice with less concentration than last year (see below) to the east of greenland near us..

[oldsnowywizard]

cant believe this thread slipped to page 2!! :o

updates..

SSTs -

sorry for the ncoda image taking a while to load..

shows 99% of the usual ice areas have average or below average SST temps.. that includes Kara and Barents two areas usually with positive anomalys!!

looking on here http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/ice.php?img=sst

temps in Chuckchi have dropped from 3 to 5 degrees c as posted by me on the 4th of Oct to 0 and 1, with ice development.. areas of the Bearing sea have dropped by 5 degrees in the last 2 weeks... just goes to show how quickly things can change up north...

850 temps -

i wont post these.. but a quick comparison of the dates shows that there is still some quite strong cold pooling in comparison to most of the last 10 years..

temps -

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/map/images/fnl/sfc...er_07b.fnl.html

anyone get any temp comparison sites?

sea ice -

http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm

equal to 2005 and 2006 values and not too far off the other years represented, except last year of course which can only be a good thing!!!

http://www.nsidc.colorado.edu/data/seaice_index/daily.html

still going up..

CT for old times sake - http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IM...current.365.jpg

half a month ahead compared with last year..

in terms of sea ice concentrations.. we are doing stonkingly well when taking into account where we have come from.. not back to the 30 year mean by any stretch but still positive!!

ice thickness -

0-30 cms.. according to the above.. im sure there are other sites could you post links please?

[carinthian]

Evening,

Interesting latest soundings out of East Greenland today. The characteristics of the Arctic Air mass to hit the British Isles can be read from this graph. This is indeed very cold sourced for late October. Note the low surface temperature of just over -20C and -25C at 850mb pressure level. Lower level winds straight from the pole itself. The air tempertures starts to rise again 773mb level as the polar surface winds are replaced by the warmer upper westerlies above the Greenland ice cap, this is where the air mass becomes most unstable. Fierce winter storms can be generated down in the Greenland Sea.

C

[carinthian]

Todays 12z Radiosonde from Jan Mayen, up wind from the British Isles, shows a more typical graph readings for the end of January, rather than end of October. This Arctic air mass set to sweep through the British Isles tomorrow. Its going to be cold alright. Wrap up.

C

[Polar Continental]

Thanks for the updates Carinthian, yes a real bite to the wind for tomorrow, this is going to take a few people by surprise.

Very beautiful up in Svalbard, despite the building and telephone wires.

webcam

Paul

[phil nw.]

Thanks for the updates Carinthian, yes a real bite to the wind for tomorrow, this is going to take a few people by surprise.

Very beautiful up in Svalbard, despite the building and telephone wires.

webcam

Paul

HI Paul,

Yes lovely Wintry scene.Looks like they only get a couple hrs. daylight up there now according to time on pic.

[carinthian]

Thanks for the updates Carinthian, yes a real bite to the wind for tomorrow, this is going to take a few people by surprise.

Very beautiful up in Svalbard, despite the building and telephone wires.

webcam

Paul

Hello Paul,

Having spent 3 months up there, it is a wonderful place. Just love it and blows my mind away.

C

[Polar Continental]

HI Paul,

Yes lovely Wintry scene.Looks like they only get a couple hrs. daylight up there now according to time on pic.

Hello Paul,

Having spent 3 months up there, it is a wonderful place. Just love it and blows my mind away.

C

Hi Phil, Carinthian,

Yes not much daylight left there, only a couple more weeks and darkness descends, so no more pics for a while. I envy you Carinthian, yes, it looks a truly wonderful place. Almost unspoiled, I really hope these islands will be protected in the future.

Paul

Edited October 27, 2008 by Polar Continental

[connlach]

I see from the ice charts that the ice is still increasing and is almost level with 2002. Does this have any bearing on the early cold spells we have been seeing?

[phil nw.]

Much better ice formation than this time last year,indeed.

[carinthian]

Much better ice formation than this time last year,indeed.

Hi Phil,

Not only that, snow cover is far much greater than last year.

C

[carinthian]

I see from the ice charts that the ice is still increasing and is almost level with 2002. Does this have any bearing on the early cold spells we have been seeing?

hi Connlach,

The ice picture for this same time 40 years ago shows much more ice formation around Svalbard, the North Barent Sea and Kara Sea and about the same in the Greenland Sea. What followed was one of the coldest and snowiest winters with Arctic winds. If we can get back to earlier formation of ice in the Barents and Northern Norwegian Sea , there will be an increased chance of a colder winter. This years formation is certainly more advanced than this time last year. All in all about 1 million sq km than last year.

C

[Zerouali lives]

Has sea ice ever merged Greenland and Iceland together?

[swfc]

Has sea ice ever merged Greenland and Iceland together?

Yes during the last ice age.

Maybe also in 1947 and 1962-63.

[Optimus Prime]

Certainly wasn't 1962/1963, Greenland and Iceland had an exceptionally mild winter, typically 1c-2.5c above average due to the perisstance of high pressure to the south, feeding in mild SW's.

Carinthian may be able to confirm this but as far as I know the last time Greenland and Iceland were effectively 'joined' was during the Northerly spells of February 1969 (where almost all of Europe and the UK had a horrendously cold February)

[J10]

Why are the waters off the coast of Canada being slightly reluctant to freeze and why do the coasts to thr north of Svalbard struggle to freeze, is it due to the warmer waters from the south.

[carinthian]

Has sea ice ever merged Greenland and Iceland together?

Yes Z,

A bridge of ice between Greenland and Iceland occurred in the Spring of 1968 after a 50 years absence.

c

[carinthian]

Certainly wasn't 1962/1963, Greenland and Iceland had an exceptionally mild winter, typically 1c-2.5c above average due to the perisstance of high pressure to the south, feeding in mild SW's.

Carinthian may be able to confirm this but as far as I know the last time Greenland and Iceland were effectively 'joined' was during the Northerly spells of February 1969 (where almost all of Europe and the UK had a horrendously cold February)

Hello 0P,

YES 62/63 saw some very warm temperatures over Greenland. The Scandinavia high pressure system advected the flood of very cold air from Siberia into Europe to produce the coldest winter of the last century. The resultant Atlantic warmer flow was sent Northwards into Greenland and Iceland. Any attempt to invade the British Isles met a severe cold block and produced spectacular snow accululations that lasted from Boxing Day until the end of March. The Northerly spell of 1969 was the peak of the 1960s " little ice age". Iceland and Greenland ice bridge occurred the previous spring.

C

[Stu_London]

The area East of Greenland should have benefitted from the arctic air that flooded south this week.

Hopefully the ice maps will reflect an improvement over the next few days as this is the only area that is lagging behind last year.

The impressive early season freeze up can only help concentration and thickness levels which really suffered in Summer 07 and 08.

[phil nw.]

Just a quick comment triggered by postings above regarding the icecap extending to Iceland form Greenland.

Going back half a century or so,when i was at school,i remember an old weather book showed a map with a dotted line across the North coast of Iceland,labelled "limit of Ice in Spring"

Regretably i can`t think of the title and there are no records,i guess,to illustrate those maps now.

It does remind me of how the ice has retreated since those days.

[stewfox]

Yes Z,

A bridge of ice between Greenland and Iceland occurred in the Spring of 1968 after a 50 years absence.

c

Didnt 1976 provide some alarming trends up that way ?

Maybe wrong but it followed on from very warm summer in UK

However bridges of ice can occur