Daily Climate - Arctic Sea Ice On Pace For New Record Low (Though 2 Months To Go Yet)

[hatrack]

A generation ago Jimmy Carter was in the White House, donning sweaters and telling Americans to turn down the thermostat. In the 35 years since, global emissions have almost doubled, from 18 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide a year in 1980 to almost 32 billion in 2011, the latest year available.

The impacts are increasingly being felt everywhere – bigger storms in the Midwest, soggy summers in England, drought in Colorado. But nowhere on the planet are the impacts as dramatic as the Arctic, and the ice cap is a prime example.

EDIT

But up in the Arctic, the ice pack is on pace for another record low. Scientists won't know for sure until mid-September, the end of the North's melt season. But two snapshots, one from July 21, 1979, the other from July 21, 2014, show the change.

EDIT/END

http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2014/07/july-arctic-ice-melt

[OnlinePoker]

1. There's nothing in the Daily Climate article about a record low except a link

When you click the link, there is nothing there about a record low. NSIDC has the extent for yesterday at 530k km2 above the record low of 2012 and above every year since 2009. Highly doubtful there will be a record low.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. 'record low' isn't born out by that graph, or by other figures

And that's the point where we are at right now. As forecasted two weeks ago, the low times have led to slow times. Not that there has been any prolonged period of fast declines this year. Sure, high pressure was dominating the Arctic for a while, leading to clearer skies and thus more insolation. But more is needed for sea ice area and extent numbers to drop substantially. Things like wind to bring in warm air and move the ice around.
...
The big question now is whether 2014 ends up near 2013 (higher even), or not.

Sea ice area (SIA)

Occasional century breaks are offset by low daily losses, keeping the 2014 trend line on the Cryosphere Today graph near the top of the 2005-2014 range:


...
Sea ice extent (SIE)

On the IJIS graph the 2014 trend line has now definitely moved away from the top years, going well above 2013, making the graph more in line with the CT SIA graph:



http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2014/07/asi-2014-update-6-slow-times.html