Graham P Davis wrote:


The latest from UIUC yesterday (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/) is
that the area is now down to 3.22 million sq. kilometres.

NSIDC (http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_sea...810_index.html)
has also been updated and has interesting information on the North-West
Passage. One niggle I'd have with it though is it says "the region is more
open than it has ever been since the advent of routine monitoring in 1972."
Actually, it's been monitored for longer than that. In the late 60s and
early seventies it was monitored using satellite data and through that
period and earlier there were aircraft recce flights over the area. The Met
Office published charts from 1959 onwards and, although data-coverage is a
bit sketchy in the early years, it is still sufficient for me to say that
the passage is more open than in any year since those publications began.

On the same page, there is an animation of the disappearance of old ice from
1982-2007. It was my estimate that there'd been a stronger than average
outflow of old ice from the Arctic during the winter and spring that led me
to expect that this summer would see a record minimum in Arctic sea-ice
coverage.


The question is what would our summer weather be like if the ice melted
at the pole? With a lesser gradient in temperature one would have
thought the jet stream(s) would be weaker and westerlies less frequent,
do we have any data from Ice cores in Greenland etc. that may give us an
idea. And then of course there's still the weaker Gulf Stream theory,
all if which could also change our artificially warm winter scenario. Or
maybe it will make little difference?
--
Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net
e-mail: kreh at southendweather dot net