Mark Serreze Of NSIDC On May Arctic Ice Trends: "We've Never Seen Anything Like This Before" - WP

[hatrack]

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

The 2016 race downward in Arctic sea ice continued in May with a dramatic new record. The average area of sea ice atop the Arctic Ocean last month was just 12 million square kilometers (4.63 million square miles), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). That beats the prior May record (from 2004) by more than half a million square kilometers, and is well over a million square kilometers, or 500,000 square miles, below the average for the month.

Another way to put it is this: The Arctic Ocean this May had more than three Californias less sea ice cover than it did during an average May between 1981 and 2010. And it broke the prior record low for May by a region larger than California, although not quite as large as Texas. This matters because 2016 could be marching toward a new record for the lowest amount of ice ever observed on top of the world at the height of melt season — September. The previous record September low was set in 2012. But here’s what the National Snow and Ice Data Center has to say about that:

Daily extents in May were also two to four weeks ahead of levels seen in 2012, which had the lowest September extent in the satellite record. The monthly average extent for May 2016 is more than one million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) below that observed in May 2012.

In other words, for Arctic sea ice, May 2016 was more like June 2012 — the record-breaking year. Going into the truly warm months of the year, then, the ice is in a uniquely weak state. “We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Mark Serreze, who directs the center. “It’s way below the previous record, very far below it, and we’re something like almost a month ahead of where we were in 2012.”

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/07/weve-never-seen-anything-like-this-arctic-sea-ice-hit-a-stunning-new-low-in-may/

[jtuck004]

1. I'll have to find it, but a local rag did a story about a WSU grad (iirc) that is in the Antarctic,

where the ice used to be 9-10 feet thick in his previous trips.

Now it is described as similar to the layer of chocolate that you get on a dipped cone.

I think anyone that is 20 or younger needs to stop us before we kill them. How is tough, but dying seems tougher.

[merrifield]

3. It's not just them we'll kill.

There are scientists who are predicting a totality of extinction level climate events that will probably wipe out most humans as soon as the next twenty years or so. The acidification of the ocean (which kills plankton which provide a lot of our oxygen) and the heat will apparently do us in. Yes, healthy adults (but not the young, old or sick) can survive the coming near-term high temps, but most crops cannot, so even if the heat doesn't kill us, there won't be much to eat. Put this together with economic systems breaking down as this all comes down on us, and we won't be able to keep the grid up. When that goes down, then the hundreds of nuclear reactors and the 4000 spent fuel pools will do the rest of us in with the radiation they will spew into the air and water. Depressing, yes.

[nikto]

2. Yeah, but Global Climate Change isn't real, and I have proof

We had cool weather here yesterday.

If GCC was real, it would have been hot, right?

So there!






(Don't mind me. I'm just practicing how to be Conservative/GOP) .

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. However, June so far has been a respite

https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/vishop-extent.html

In the last week or so, it's been moving back towards the 'normal' range. The long term trend of melting is still evident, but the difference from the 2003-15 average is down from nearly 1 million sq km to about 700,000 sq km.

[progressoid]

5. But I heard Kim and Kanye were getting divorced!!

A little perspective here!

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. The thing I don’t like about this graph is that it does not use a 0 origin

Look, it’s a dramatic decline, but at first glance, the ice appears to be nearing 0, as opposed to (roughly) a 14% decrease from 1978. I greatly prefer the graph supplied by muriel_volestrangler (it’s quite disturbing enough for me.)