Arctic cyclone chews up rotten northern sea ice

[phantom power]

Arctic scientists are watching in awe this week as a raging summer cyclone tears up what could become a record amount of rotting northern sea ice.

...

Last year, a particularly powerful cyclone is thought to have wiped out 800,000 square kilometres of ice. That contributed to record low sea-ice levels at the end of the 2012 melt year.

This year’s storm over the Beaufort Sea formed about mid-week and is expected to die out on the weekend.

It isn’t as strong as last year’s, but the ice is thinner and weaker. As well, the ice has already been pummelled by earlier storms.

“The effects of (the storm) are nowhere near what we saw last August,” said Asplin. “But because the ice is thinner and it’s already been pre-conditioned, and because there’s less volume, it’s much more vulnerable to impacts from this sort of thing.”

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130728/arctic-cyclone-chews-rotten-northern-sea-ice

[GliderGuider]

1. Yum!

[pscot]

2. This was predicted to be a

weak, short-lived event

[phantom power]

4. weak short-lived storm -- going up against weak short-lived ice

[Eddie Haskell]

3. Yep