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Showing posts from June, 2015

Dramatic Sea Ice Decline In Beaufort Sea in June 2015

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The image below illustrates the dramatic fall in sea ice thickness (in m) in the Beaufort Sea over the past month. The left panel shows sea ice thickness on May 29, 2015, and the panel on the right shows sea ice thickness on June 29, 2015. The 30-day animation below further illustrates this dramatic fall in sea ice thickness (from June 8-29, with forecast up to July 7, 2015). Another perspective is sea ice concentration. The image below shows the high concentration back on May 1, 2015. The 30-day animation below shows the dramatic fall in sea ice concentration (from June 8-29, with forecast up to July 7, 2015). Below an interview by Judy Sole with Professor Peter Wadhams , held May 15, 2015, and entitled 'Our time is running out - The Arctic sea ice is going!' Meanwhile, very high temperatures keep showing up within the Arctic Circle . On July 1, 2015, a temperature of 36°C (96.8°F) was reached near the Kolyma River that ends in the East Siberian Sea , as illustrated by the im...

Accelerated Warming in the Arctic

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Warming in the Arctic is accelerating. On June 25, 2015, high temperatures hit North America. Temperatures as high as 30.3°C (86.54°F) were recorded where the Mackenzie River is flowing into the Arctic Ocean. June 25, 2015 - High temperatures over North America, close to the Arctic Ocean On July 1, 2015, temperatures are forecast to be as high as 111.4°F (or 44.1°C) near Chico, north of San Francisco. Temperatures are forecast to be high over most of North America and Eastern Siberia, threatening to further warm up waters of the Arctic Ocean. Forecast for July 1, 2015 -  High temperatures over North America, close to the Arctic Ocean The image below shows that on June 27, 2015, temperatures of well over 40°C (104°F) were recorded in Europe and in Pakistan, where temperatures earlier this month had reached 49°C (120.2°F) in some places. The heat wave reportedly killed 1233 people in Karachi alone. This in addition to the 2500 people killed earlier in India by high t...

Gulf Stream brings ever warmer water into Arctic Ocean

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The image below shows sea surface temperature anomalies in the Arctic as at June 9, 2015. The image below shows the Arctic from a 180° rotated angle, while also showing the high sea surface temperature anomalies that are so prominent in the North Pacific (note also that the scale of sea surface temperature anomalies differs). One may wonder why sea surface temperature anomalies below zero are visible in the North Atlantic, given that ocean heat is rising rapidly. As the IPCC said in AR5, more than 60% of the net energy increase in the climate system is stored in the upper ocean (0–700 m) during the relatively well-sampled 40-year period from 1971 to 2010, and about 30% is stored in the ocean below 700 m. Global heat content at 0-2000 m is rising even faster than at 0-700 m  The image below further pictures the situation as at June 9, 2015, with large blue and purple areas showing in the North Atlantic where meltwater from the Arctic has spread over time. Indeed, the accumulat...