Bering the load

[XemaSab]

After last year's corny title (Bering in mind) I naturally had to continue the tradition. But this year the pun is quite appropriate, as it seems that the Bering Sea is indeed bearing the load of anomalous ice cover that offers a counterweight to what's happening on the Atlantic side of the Arctic, and thus keeps total sea ice extent and area figures in balance. If it weren't for this chances of a new winter maximum ice cover would be very great indeed.

On the Cryosphere Today sea ice area map for the Bering Sea region figure we can see how anomalously high sea ice over is at the moment (red line):



http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/02/bering-the-load.html

Meanwhile, the Barents and Kara seas aren't doing so well.






There are roughly two weeks left until the ice peaks, and it looks like we're going to top out right around where we were last year.



When we hit peak I'll start a prediction thread.