On Thursday, 22 December 2016 18:23:43 UTC, Alastair wrote:
Here is a Guardian report on the Arctic sea ice:
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ctic-midwinter

I can't see the sea-ice recovering now :-(

What a load of crap this report is! They claim that "this event has at least a one-in-200-year return time" but it is part of a trend. They continue "By the 2040s, the event is expected to occur every second year, on average." It is obvious to me that it will be exceeded every year form now on.

The reason is that with the winter ice struggling to reform the American and Asian continents cool faster than the Arctic Ocean. This causes the polar vortex to split, and as reported the Arctic low pressure drags in warm air from the tropics over the North Atlantic Ocean, giving us mild winters too!