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Arctic Sea Ice Extent In March

April 6, 2017
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By Paul Homewood

 

osisaf_nh_iceextent_monthly-03_en

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover_30y.uk.php 

 

DMI have now published the Arctic sea ice extents for March. The average this year was 14.71 million sq km, exactly the same as 2015, and only 60,000sq km less than in 2006.

 

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http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/sie_monthmean.uk.php

 

Though there have been ups and downs, it is clear that March extent has remained stable since 2006.

19 Comments
  1. Al Shelton permalink
    April 6, 2017 12:00 pm

    Why does the chart only go back to 1979??

    • A C Osborn permalink
      April 6, 2017 1:00 pm

      Because they changed the Satellite coverage and they can use that as an excuse to not show that it was much lower prior to 79.

  2. CheshireRed permalink
    April 6, 2017 12:06 pm

    If you can bear it there’s yet another awesomely stupid Guardian article on their site, this time linking (by the most tenuous means possible) an increase in Atlantic icebergs to yes, you’ve guessed, global warming. The BTL comments are as usual dripping in runaway climate hysteria.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/huge-fleet-icebergs-north-atlantic-shipping-lanes

    • dave permalink
      April 6, 2017 12:30 pm

      Better warn the Titanic!

    • quaesoveritas permalink
      April 6, 2017 1:40 pm

      I am sure that I remember a comment on the BBC, some time ago (2012?) to the effect that there were LESS icebergs then, as a result of “global warming”.

      • CheshireRed permalink
        April 6, 2017 2:22 pm

        Amazingly, record Antarctic sea ice in 2014 was blamed on global warming! Too much ice, too little ice – everything is caused by global warming.

      • quaesoveritas permalink
        April 6, 2017 8:15 pm

        I think it has something to do with increased “calving”‘.
        Just realized I should have said “fewer” icebergs. (i think)

  3. April 6, 2017 2:13 pm

    Reblogged this on Climate Collections.

  4. April 6, 2017 3:33 pm

    Meanwhile:
    Atlantic ferry carrying 209 passengers stuck in ice off Cape Breton.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/04/04/atlantic-ferry-carrying-209-passengers-stuck-in-ice-off-cape-breton.html

  5. John F. Hultquist permalink
    April 6, 2017 3:48 pm

    Sometimes storms and high winds break up the ice on the Arctic Ocean and then the ice gets pushed out to lower (warmer ocean) latitudes. Sometimes multi-year (thick) ice stays intact and acts as a plug or blocker, thus keeping the ice at high latitude. This creates lots of bergs some years, fewer in other years.
    For reference, here is a map showing the location of the Fram Strait:
    Fram Strait

    Here is a WUWT report from 8 years ago about a “flow out” in 2007:
    Arctic sea ice flow

    • dave permalink
      April 6, 2017 4:16 pm

      The animation with the the WUWT report is excellent. It shows how the circulation must always leave 2 or 3 million sq km of ice on the Canadian side even through the annual melt. The gap between Alaska and Russia is too small to allow egress, unlike the gap between Greenland and Iceland.

      Although parts of the open ocean have less ice-cover every winter, the Arctic Basin never fails to freeze completely (excepting polynas.)

  6. CheshireRed permalink
    April 6, 2017 4:14 pm

    Paul we all know alarmists use every trick in the book to present their scares in the ‘worst’ possible way, but to put the above figures in perspective I make the ‘collapse’ to be all of…. 7.8%. It’s a century-rate of just over 25% which requires a LOT of assumptions to actually happen.

    Arctic: 14.42 / 15.64 = 92.19%. A drop of 7.81% over 30+ years. Big wow. Funny but ‘Less than an 8% reduction’ doesn’t sound quite as scary as ‘a collapse of 1.22 million sq km’s’.

    Greenland: Look how SkS throw in a scare story about ‘excessive calving’ to offset a record year. Entirely typical of SkS though.

    https://skepticalscience.com/sea-ice-record-lows-arctic-antarctic.html

  7. Athelstan permalink
    April 7, 2017 12:12 am

    Erm, ITV aren’t gonna fall for ‘sea ice normal’ …………………

    SNAFU alert?

    The Tempelfjord is around 1,000 km from the north pole, a sliver of water bounded by mountain ranges that jut out from the western edge of Svalbard like jagged fingers.

    At this time of year, the sea here is normally covered in ice, the uppermost metre or so frozen solid during the dark Arctic winter months.

    But things haven’t been normal this winter.

    TARFUN could be?

    “at this time of year, the sea here is normally covered in ice”

    “normally” maybe……….. but……………….. and what about da poley bears huh?

    ITV they shame us, they really do.

    • nigel permalink
      April 7, 2017 8:00 am

      “…frozen solid during the dark Arctic winter months.”

      Which is, anyway, a flat-out lie. It is NEVER frozen in the winter. The freeze is strictly an occurrence of the SPRING. The official tourist guide says it only freezes from February to early May, and “this varies.”

      • nigel permalink
        April 7, 2017 8:16 am

        I have just looked up the nearest official weather station, which is at Svalbard Airport. In the last 30 days the average temperature has been -12.8 C which is 2.6 C above normal (their records start in 1964). The highest recent was +2.5 C on March 14th and the lowest was -23.5 C on March 18. A downswing of 26 C in 4 days. As said, things “vary.”

      • Athelstan permalink
        April 7, 2017 8:49 am

        OK yes, island weather does vary, we know it – might be sumpfink to do with that ever so sneaky Ocean and NA drift maybe?

        The media goons who put out this sort of claptrap, ie: ‘normally covered in ice’. At Latitude 74º+ N yeah! you’d expect things to be a tad on the cold side but insofar as the weather is concerned – nothing but nothing is ‘normal’ we just observe the variability and we love variability otherwise – we’d have nowt to talk about – yeah even in Svaalbard.

      • dave permalink
        April 8, 2017 1:47 pm

        That location is inland (or up-fjord!) of where the Gulf Stream warmth finally peters out. The tiniest change in the strength or direction of the current determines how much ice forms there in late spring.

  8. dave permalink
    April 8, 2017 1:54 pm

    http://polarportal.dk/en/havisen-i-arktis/nbsp/sea-ice-temperature/

    That tiny bit of yellow extending (intruding) up the west coast of Svalbard (Spitzbergen) is where the water is above freezing at present.

    Big whoop.

  9. nigel permalink
    April 9, 2017 8:46 am

    Arctic sea-ice volume reaches its maximum after the areal extent does. Volume is still increasing. According to the DMI Ice Portal it is EXACTLY what it was, at this time last year.

Comments are closed.