WP - October Arctic Ice Extent Lowest On Record, Plus Record High Temps

[hatrack]

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Sea ice extent in the Arctic is as low as it has ever been measured in late October, and air temperatures are record warm. Sea ice experts say it is difficult to project what the current ice depletion means for the next year, but the unmistakable long-term trend toward less ice is troubling.

“The overall trajectory is clear — sometime in the next few decades, maybe as early as 2030, we’ll wake up to a September with no Arctic sea ice,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), in Boulder, Colo.

The present ice levels reflect a record slow recovery after the summer minimum on Sept. 10, which tied for the second-lowest extent on record. Shortly after the minimum, it seemed as if the ice was headed for a fast recovery. But then the ice growth abruptly slowed because of unusually warm temperatures in the Arctic.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Zachary Labe, a PhD student at the University of California at Irvine who is studying Arctic sea ice and extreme weather, tweeted that air temperatures over parts of the Arctic have been more than 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Labe also implicated unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the record-slow ice recovery. “The anomalously warm sea surface temperatures are largely contributing to the currently record-breaking low sea ice and this is likely to continue to affect sea ice formation into 2017,” Labe said in an email.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/10/27/arctic-sea-ice-is-at-a-record-low-and-could-in-spurts-disappear-within-our-lifetimes/

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. All I know is that tis almost November and I have the A/C on.

[hatrack]

2. October 29th - Honeysuckle blooming, dandelions coming up, lettuce bolting