In Freezing Darkness & 2 Months Late, Ice Beginning To Reform In Laptev Sea, The "Birthplace Of Ice"

[hatrack]

It is mid-November and the Arctic has already been plunged into 24-hour darkness for the winter, but two months after the normal point at which the sea ice begins to refreeze into the huge sheets which cap the top of our planet, enormous areas of open water remain. The record-breaking delay comes after the average ice extent for October was the lowest in the satellite record, and means current ice coverage is roughly the same as it was during the height of the summer, when melting after the previous winter was well underway.

EDIT

The lack of ice means the Arctic sea ice extent is currently the lowest for this time of year, for at least a thousand years, scientists have said, though refreezing has now begun. Professor Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London told The Independent: “This year is an unusual year. The lowest recorded sea ice extent in the summer was in 2012, but this year is really unusual for two reasons. The first is that at the start of the summer, the sea ice melted away really quickly. Much more quickly than in 2012, but it didn’t continue. It sort of bottomed out above the 2012 level. But whereas in 2012 it started to freeze back more quickly, in 2020 it has taken its time getting back.”

EDIT

Professor Siegert said: “We need much more data, and much more measurement of the ice to understand [the delayed refreezing of the ice], but we can speculate, and those speculations are quite obvious: We’ve had crazy levels of heating in the Siberian Arctic bordering the Laptev Sea, the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea - the relatively shallow Russian arctic waters - and that heat is [absorbed by] the ocean, so it simply takes longer to form that ice from a sea that is relatively warm compared to what it would have been under a normal year.

EDIT

However, he said though the extremes of 2020 had “caught people by surprise”, the overall patterns had been predicted 50 years ago. “The warning signs have been around since the 1970s that the sea ice was reducing, so if we wanted an early warning system, we’ve gone past it. This is the next stage. We’re seeing ice start to decay at a faster and faster rate. This is something that was predicted - that by the middle of the 21st century there’d be summer times without any sea ice.

EDIT

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-sea-ice-siberia-temperature-climate-change-b1723810.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Climate change: Warmer winters linked to increased drowning risk (Lake, river ice)

By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

Published 1 day ago

Winter activities on ice are becoming increasingly dangerous as the world warms, scientists say.

When researchers looked at data on drowning accidents in largely frozen lakes or rivers, they saw a "strong correlation" to rising temperatures.

They found that deaths from drowning were five times higher when warmer weather made the ice thinner and weaker.

Children aged under nine years and younger adults were most at risk.

For indigenous peoples in many northern regions of the world, livelihoods often depend on access to frozen lakes in winter for hunting, fishing and travel.

In countries like the US, Canada and Russia, winter leisure activities such as skating or tobogganing on ice are also hugely popular.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54989046