for ice-watchers keeping score at home:

[phantom power]

The Arctic summer storm - which perhaps will be known as the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012, time will tell - is slowly falling apart, losing its strength and position. It still remains to be seen what the total effect of this storm will be on the sea ice. There's the churning, the transport, the waves, the Ekman pumping, but at the same time spreading of the pack that could cause rapid refreeze between floes when temps fall, and it's not entirely clear to me yet what the effect of this storm will be on air temperatures, which are now slowly coming into play and have a role in determining the end of the melting season, marked by the minimum size the sea ice cover reaches. Still a few weeks to go before that happens.

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/arctic-storm-part-3-detachment.html

[GliderGuider]

1. Whoof!

I'm enthralled. It feels like 2007 all over again!

[philly_bob]

2. I love this kind of post! Political posts are OK...

but, for me at least, this was new information. "The Great Arctic Ice Cyclone of 2012" Wow!

The link explains that the chart shows "The sea ice extent chart from the Danish Meteorological Institute."

Thanks, phantom. And if you're a smart, reality-based expert on some technical subject, please do posts like this.

[phantom power]

3. several remarkable things are going on up in the arctic

A probable new record ice cover low, and one that may smash the 2007 record low. Massive methane releases from permafrost thaw. A reconfiguration of the jet stream, implicated in this year's heat waves and drought, which may be permanent due to the changes in ice cover. Greenland's albedo dropping like a stone.

I don't pay a lot of attention, but to my knowledge the MSM isn't covering any of this. But it's the olympics, and Willard's still arguing about his tax forms, and shark week, and shit.

[Denninmi]

5. Nothing to see here, move along.

You know, if we are going down, the media won't tell us about it if some starlet is cheating on her boyfriend or whatever at the same time, that's the important stuff don't you know?

I dunno, maybe it's better not knowing.

[GliderGuider]

6. Is it better not knowing?

A lot of that depends on whether you think it can be fixed, or if knowing would change your behavior in positive ways.

I used to give Peak Oil talks, with some broader collapse issues factored in. But I found that most people didn't find "Quick, wake up and kiss your children goodbye!" to be a very helpful message. Most people are really doing the best they can with what they have, and screwing up their peace of mind to no good purpose isn't very kind.

I don't think things can be fixed, so I don't give talks like that any more. Nowadays I mostly watch in amazement and whisper, "Holy shit, look at that!" to myself.

[XemaSab]

4. Ahem... the name of the storm

is "Arctic summer storm John Galt."

[phantom power]

7. there is a rich vein that could be mined here

Derecho Howard Roark
Drought Ayn Rand
Superstorm Dagny Taggart

[XemaSab]

8. There's apparently a dipole anomaly ramping up

[Systematic Chaos]

9. You no give linky?

You BAAAAAD.

[XemaSab]

10. Just because I was shamed into it:

http://www.weatherbellmodels.com/weather/ecmwf/2012080800/arctic/ecmwf_mslp_arctic_loop.php

[phantom power]

11. that's neat. So right now the entire arctic ocean is in a big swirly blender:

And then in about a week it will have a bunch of wind blowing it all out into the atlantic.

like if you take the cover off the blender, except you forgot to turn it off:

[Systematic Chaos]

12. The one and only thing that is stuck in my head as I look at those plots....

But at least it's a happy song!

[phantom power]

13. our ice cap is melting but we'll always have 70s jazz flute

[XemaSab]

14. .

[joshcryer]

15. Are you fucking kidding me?

Holy fuck.

[XemaSab]

16. It's going to be 2.3, and you can take that to the bank

[XemaSab]

17. There is serious wailing and gnashing of teeth in the blog today

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/further-detachment.html

[GliderGuider]

18. Their hair is on fire on the next page as well:

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/peeking-through-the-clouds-3.html

Rob Dekker's post dated August 10, 2012 at 10:12 is pretty remarkable.

[phantom power]

19. right then

[phantom power]

20. lots of talk about methane. lots and lots...

[XemaSab]

21. So we lost 140,000 sqkm yesterday

and the anomaly is -2.306.

It's hard not to remember that virtually all the "red" that was left on this date in 2007 was going to melt.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/arctic.sea.ice.interactive.html