You are browsing the archive for Arctic Sea Ice Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
18 September 2019
Arctic Sea Ice Melt May be 2nd Lowest On Record
The summer melt of the Arctic sea ice is nearly done and the numbers are flirting with being the 2nd lowest on record. 2012 is the lowest and this year will not be as low but still at alarming levels. The real change is the loss of the multi ice that lasts from year to year. This “old” ice is nearly gone and you can see it disappear in this …
29 January 2019
The Climate Threat is Much Worse Than You Think, But There’s Still Hope
I know a lot of people are tired of hearing the title of this post, but it’s true. The threat we face from climate change is a lot worse than you think it is. There is near unanimous agreement that we must strive to keep the Earth’s temperature from going above 2 degrees C from the pre-industrial times, and better yet would be holding it to 1.5 C. That’s not …
12 December 2018
NOAA’s Says The Polar Freezer is In Defrost Mode
NOAA’s Arctic Report Card came out today but with all the news (that’s barely fit to print) these days, it was easy to miss. Here’s a summary of the major points and an excellent video from NOAA that summarises it. Too bad I’ve not seen it linked on any major news sites. You can read the whole report here. Report Card Highlights from NOAA Surface air temperatures in the Arctic continued to …
21 March 2018
Four in A Row! Is Tomorrow’s Snow Storm Related to Melting Ice in the Arctic?
Just because it seems like it, doesn’t mean it is so. A subjective feeling means nothing more than,” I wonder if this is true”. Science goes by the data, so when it seems like there have been a lot of snowy winters in the Northeast U.S. over the last couple of decades, you need to see if that has indeed been the case. Then (and only then!) can you ask, what …
5 March 2018
Arctic Sea Ice May Be About To Set Another Record Low
Earth science community is all watching the Arctic sea ice right now. We are very close to the winter maximum extent, and it may very well be the lowest on record. The ice has grown slowly due to the incredibly warm temperatures across the region compared to the average. Look how warm the entire Arctic was on 25 February. Since then, it has cooled somewhat. here are today’s anomalies. …
15 December 2017
Take Three Minutes and Study These Two Graphs
One of the biggest science meetings on the planet is underway in New Orleans right now. The AGU meeting is huge and a LOT of newsmaking science comes out of it. This year is no different. The AMS published a special edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) to coincide with this conference and the AMS annual meeting that I’m looking forward to attending in Austin next month. …
22 March 2017
Record Low Ice at Both Poles
We are getting used to hearing about a record melt out of the Arctic in the early autumn each year, but now we are seeing the lowest wintertime ice on record as well. It’s not official yet, but it looks like the Arctic Ice is now in a steady melt, and the maximum extent this winter was the lowest on record. Neven, over at the Arctic Sea Ice Blog thinks …
12 February 2017
Astonishing February Heat From Colorado to Oklahoma, and Into The High Arctic
Denver reached 80 degrees Friday, smashing their record high for the 10th of February by 9 degrees, but wait, there’s more. They also saw their hottest February temperature on record, and records there go back to 1872! Grant was President of the U.S. when temperature records began in Denver. Colorado Springs, and Pueblo, also saw their hottest February day on record. The heat shifted south into Oklahoma today and Oklahoma City smashed their …
29 December 2016
The Smoking Gun of Arctic Warmth Leads To A Stunning Indictment
It normally takes many months to get a paper through peer review and into a journal, but a group of scientists has released their detection and attribution study early, and it’s a stunning indictment. We now know the culprit for the astonishing Arctic warmth of November and December. It seemed very likely that the guilty party was rising greenhouse gasses with Arctic amplification as the accomplice, and that’s JUST what …
22 December 2016
The United States of Warming
That’s what the folks at Climate Central called this animated GIF. Look how warm 2016 has been across the U.S.: Globally there is no doubt that 2016 will become the new hottest year on record globally, and look at the animation from NASA of the Arctic sea ice vanishing before our eyes. The High Arctic is extremely warm today, and I’m seeing some model output showing temps. may approach an …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.