On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 21:01:52 -0000, Alastair McDonald wrote in

http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham...2-f-grn-e.html


I have been looking at this:
http://129.13.102.67/wz/pics/brack5.gif
over the past few days and have noticed that the extent of ice is larger
than I can ever recall seeing it over the past few years at least, even
allowing for the fact that we are now at the max ice time of year.

I believe that even in the good old days before global warming it was
very rare for there to be ice all the way from Greenland to Iceland and yet
now we are not too far off that.

Is there anything significant in this I wonder, have things been much
colder than average up there this year?

I'd say the winter up there has been on the mild side, but couldn't cite
evidence to support that - purely my looking at temperatures over the last
few months.

It may be due to warmth rather than cold. Weather and climate can play
strange tricks. For instance more snow can be the result of warming
because it needs water vapour and cold to form, and water vapour is
the result of warm seas. Here, there could be more ice flowing out of
the Arctic because the ice there is thinner due to global warming.
Thinner ice will break up more easily, and also flow faster in surface
currents.

I'd agree with much of what you have said there, Alastair. I have often
noticed an ice extension/maximum in that region in late winter and early
spring. As you say it may be partly down to thinning of the ice and more
easy movement in the currents. There is some evidence for the ice breaking
up on those sat pics as well.

The only winter, in recent times, when ice made a bridge between Iceland
and Greenland was 1968. I'd love to see a satellite image of then to
compare with what looks quite broken ice east of Greenland now.

--
Mike 55.13°N 6.69°W Coleraine posted to uk.sci.weather 11/03/2005 21:30:04 UTC