Aug 21 2008

Largest Northern Ice Extent In 3 Years

Published by at 8:06 am under All General Discussions,Global Warming

Early this year some hysterical members of the Church of Al Gore/IPCC predicted we could see a North Pole without ice cover (sorry, can’t find the old post on this one). Well, we just passed the peak ice melt point for the year and this year the Norther Hemisphere Ice Extent is the largest of the last four years (follow link for larger image):

This data is from the latest report on global climate from the US Government, released August 15th and covers the month of July. Let me illustrate this another way by comparing the current ice extent to the coverage last year, which was unusually light:

Clearly there will be ice over the North Pole this summer, there will be no record losses of ice coverage on either the South or North Pole, and the sky will not fall – this year.

15 responses so far

15 Responses to “Largest Northern Ice Extent In 3 Years”

  1. breschau says:

    Please don’t tell me that you think a single year actually is indicative of a “trend” in and of itself.

    A) Couldn’t this article also be titled “4th Smallest Northern Ice Extent in 100 Years”?

    B) The ice “extent” is still negative this year.

    C) Happen to notice anything about the slope of that line up there?

  2. WWS says:

    How about 21 years of no decline at all at the south pole? Is that enough of a trend for you? If there were really any global warming, wouldn’t it show up at the south pole?

    And gee, I wonder – could the north pole ice loss starting in 1998 possibly, just possibly, be related to the string of 2 km high volcanoes that began erupting under the ice sheet in 1998? And which have now stopped pumping hot plumes of magma into the water underneath the arctic ice sheet?

    http://sweetness-light.com/archive/could-volcanoes-be-melting-the-arctic-ice

    “Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study
    Wed Jun 25

    PARIS (AFP) – Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.”

    (much more at the link)

  3. MerlinOS2 says:

    http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/5693

    That is your post about Pacific Ocean Oscillations which may be the one you are looking to refer back to.

  4. MerlinOS2 says:

    AJ

    Could be in the multi updated post you did on June 26th about the under ice volcanoes

  5. crosspatch says:

    The volcanoes would not have melted any polar ice. The 2007 melt was caused by a shift in wind patterns that blew the ice out past Greenland into the Atlantic where it melted. This year the wind patterns are blowing the ice against the continental shield.

    Also, ice extent is wind driven. Any sea area with more than 15% ice is considered “ice”. When the wind picks up, it can bunch all this ice together causing less coverage which results in what looks like “melt” when it is really just the bunching up of loose ice floes.

  6. Stix says:

    AH yes, the Church of Manbearpig followers predict Doom and Gloom, but none of those predictions have come true. Hmm, wonder why???? Maybe it has to do with them using faulty computer models.

    I still am looking for anyone to tell me waht the temperature and precititation is going to be next Friday and be accurate, then maybe I would listen to them, but until then I will not take any of the Doom and Gloom hysterics at face value. It is all about money and grants to them. No Doom and Gloom, no money.

  7. WWS says:

    We’ve got an interesting forecasting contest set up for this winter. National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting a warmer than average winter. (Of course)

    Farmers Almanac, however, is predicting a very cold winter ahead. We’ll get to see who’s better at the forecasting game.

    http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/031815.html

    “Numb’s the word,” says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80 to 85 percent for its forecasts that are prepared two years in advance.

    The almanac’s 2009 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder than average temperatures, with only the Far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings.”

  8. pjo says:

    I’ll take the Farmer’s Almanac and some rather ridiculous high heating bill this winter to boot.

  9. Neo says:

    Do you mean that WWF commercial I saw, with the woman explaining that the polar bears were endanger because all the Artic ice is melting, is wrong ?

  10. Redteam says:

    WWS:
    Farmers Almanac, however, is predicting a very cold winter ahead. We’ll get to see who’s better at the forecasting game.

    My wife just told me last week, the squirrels are really stocking up, must be going to be a really cold winter.


    Crosspatch:
    The volcanoes would not have melted any polar ice.

    every time I add ice to hot water, it melts.  I guess it could be a coincidence that the wind changed to blowing ice away from the North pole at the same time as the volcanoes started erupting and changed to blowing ice toward the North pole when the volcanoes stopped erupting.  I guess it could be, after all, when you raise the temp of air in an area it expands the gases in the atmosphere and that causes the air to flow away from the heated area. hmmm, makes sense.

    Stix: just last night, the forecast was for no rain today. so far, it has rained every minute since midnight.

  11. breschau says:

    Neo:

    “Do you mean that WWF commercial I saw, with the woman explaining that the polar bears were endanger because all the Artic ice is melting, is wrong ?”

    Um, no.

  12. Redteam says:

    Breschau, you do know that Polar bears were here before the last time that all arctic ice disappeard and they are still around. That tells me that their survival has nothing to do with how much ice there is.

  13. pjo says:

    Breschau and Redteam, I saw a conference where the speaker showed that we have experienced this sort of warm temperatures eleven times in the last 10,000 years and in some cases worse than what we currently have recorded. So Breschau, based on what WWF is telling us if they’re in trouble and heading towards extinction, Polar Bears have had at least eleven opportunities before this to check out and be part of some Eskimo legend.

  14. breschau says:

    I don’t even pretend to be an environmental expert – my wife is the one with the degree in Environmental Analysis and Policy. (But she doesn’t do blogs.) I’m just a mathematician.

    And I look at that graph, and simply wonder – umm, how does this prove your point? The slope of the line is pretty consistenly negative, even accounting for anamolies like 2007. How is this indicative of anything positive for an argument against ice cap melting in the Arctic?

  15. Redteam says:

    I’m just a mathematician.

    you didn’t list that on facebook? They have those in Scotland?