Dawlish wrote:

I think it is more likely to be down to synoptics rather than anything
else, but it is interesting, nevertheless. Parts of the Arctic have
some very warm uppers at the moment and a large area of high pressure
is stretched across the North pole, more than likely giving strong
sunshine (for the Arctic, albeit with a low sun, of course) 24 hours a
day.

You could be right about the sunshine but my memories of poring over
satellite pictures forty or so years ago, trying to see ice through the
masses of cloud made me believe that sunshine is a rarity in the Arctic
summer. Considering all the melt-water on the ice at this time of year,
there'd be a lot of low cloud and fog around. Although the pictures from the
Arctic web-cam [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/latest/noaa1.jpg] have been
intermittent, there seems to have been total gloom for a long while.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."