Thursday, September 23, 2010
The End of Summer
Fall came officially this early morning (a little late) and, as if to punctuate the change, there was a trace of new snow on top of Mount Evans west of here.
The Northern Ocean sea ice extent has passed its nadir last week and is on the rise. The Summer melting was worse than last year but better than the two years before that. In extent, the sea ice bottomed out just under 5 million square kilometers, or an area the size of India and Afghanistan. Since India is the 7th largest country, not quite the ice free ocean Warmie True Believers like Colorado's Mark Serreze tell us is just around the corner. Or not.
In Antarctica, the sea ice area was well above normal all during the Southern Winter, but two weeks ago it took a nose dive and is now below the 1979-2000 normal line. It peaked just above 16 million square kilometers, the second highest extent in our pitifully short period of satellite measurement.
The Northern Ocean sea ice extent has passed its nadir last week and is on the rise. The Summer melting was worse than last year but better than the two years before that. In extent, the sea ice bottomed out just under 5 million square kilometers, or an area the size of India and Afghanistan. Since India is the 7th largest country, not quite the ice free ocean Warmie True Believers like Colorado's Mark Serreze tell us is just around the corner. Or not.
In Antarctica, the sea ice area was well above normal all during the Southern Winter, but two weeks ago it took a nose dive and is now below the 1979-2000 normal line. It peaked just above 16 million square kilometers, the second highest extent in our pitifully short period of satellite measurement.
Labels: Summer; Fall; Sea Ice Extent
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 2:54 PM 
