We’ve seen all those pictures of snow bound New York, all those travellers stranded at airports. Must be a really cold snap in the northern hemisphere, right?
Well, no, actually. Up in the Arctic circle something strange has been happening. Sea ice has been forming at one of the slowest rates ever!
3 Comments
Boooolllllllllllllshit!
Oh look, a climate skeptic using derision as a substitute for data. I guess that long term trend continues unabated as well.
Hi everyone,
Richard, your comment and graph is very thought provoking and it inspired me to do my own research. I was looking on the NSIDC website but I couldn’t find where you got that graph. Can you post the link please?
I did find some good information on the (U.S) National Climatic Data Center/ NOAA Satellite and Information Service website.
The information there covers the last 44 year, is up to date as of November. Some interesting points I found for Nov 2010 were:
-The Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during November 2010 was the second November in a row with above-average snow cover.
-North America got it’s 13th highest November snowfall (out of 45).
-Eurasian November snowfall was slightly below average. (23rd largest out of 45 years)
-Arctic sea ice cover was more that the 2006 November sea ice cover though it was still 12.5% below the 1979-2000 November average.
-”The November 2010 Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent was 4.09 percent above the 1979–2000 average. This was the largest November Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent on record.”
-Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent for November has had a slight average increase each decade since 1979.
NOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Global Snow & Ice for November 2010, published online December 2010, retrieved on January 4, 2011 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global-snow/2010/11.