DailyTech – Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979 – FYI.
Lies I say! Now Let’s All Sing! Laaaaaa! Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago. Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.
Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards. The data is being reported by the University of Illinois’s Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.
Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery. Bill Chapman, a researcher with the UIUC’s Arctic Center, tells DailyTech this was due in part to colder temperatures in the region. Chapman says wind patterns have also been weaker this year. Strong winds can slow ice formation as well as forcing ice into warmer waters where it will melt.
In May, concerns over disappearing sea ice led the U.S. to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal’s numbers were increasing.
Perhaps the Dvorak.org should revisit this topic.
Madrid travel snarled by deepest snow in years
OMG. I’ve worked there on & off for the last decade. I didn’t think I’d ever see this.
I say bring back global warming. This global cooling is worse.
#161 – Paddy-trOll,
Always nice to see when someone can’t tell the difference between weather and climate.
However, in this case, it may be both. It has long been known that the North Atlantic is dominated by the Gulf Stream, making Britain quite a lot warmer than Labrador, at the same latitude and also by the sea.
Since the gulf stream is already 30% slower than it used to be, this may well be an effect of a slowing gulf stream.
So, remember to keep the global in global warming. It’s not about every place on the map and it’s not about individual years. But, keep trying, you probably only have about 4,900 posts to go before you get lucky again.
http://tinyurl.com/8msdav
http://tinyurl.com/7aaoxt
Note the dates on these from 2005, so clearly not a case of explaining something after the fact, but a case of forecasting.
# 162 Misanthropic Scott said, “Always nice to see when someone can’t tell the difference between weather and climate.”
That’s right. Now that global temps are falling the “Global warming” cabal now scream that it isn’t about actual global temps rising but, other as of yet undefined “change”.
ROFL
Not finding any hits on this loooong page for “salt” or “salinity” … if the polar glaciers are melting, doesn’t that decrease the salinity of the ocean (and in particular the salinity of the surface waters in the polar regions), thus making that same water easier to freeze come next winter? So doesn’t that make this an “expected result” of global, er, climate change)?