June Sea Ice Area and Melt Ponding

I've previously blogged about the anomaly cliff in CT Area during June and its relationship with melt ponding. This anomaly drop is also seen in Wipneus's area and extent calculations based on gridded NSIDC data, it is not peculiar to Cryosphere Today Area.

However are the recent June anomaly cliffs simply due to spread of melt ponding, or is there something else going on?

PIOMAS July 2014

PIOMAS data is now out and the picture of another year of muted melt is confirmed. As of this June the net volume impact of the 2010 volume loss event has been wiped out. However this does not equate to a recovery of thickness or volume across the Arctic. Those still holding out for a crash this year are flogging a dead horse, those expecting a crash by around 2016 are walking towards the same horse, whip in hand.

The regional PIOMAS Data and Thickness Plots that I produce are now updated. See the top right panel on the blog for links.

July 2014 Status

July continues a year of moderate loss compared to the long term average. 2014 is very likely to repeat the high extent in 2013.

The Slow Transition

I've been busy with the day job, which has given me time to ponder something I've hinted at before but am now firmly behind. This year isn't a major factor, due to my increased workload in the day job I've had time away from this subject doing something else (often repetitive and boring admin) that has let my subconscious work on the issue - the issue being the long term outlook for Arctic sea ice. Here is what I am now 90% convinced of, having entertained the scenario as a possibility over the last year or so.

18 June to 18 July 2014

As discussed previously, on 18 June 2014 the weather shifted, the early June delayed start to the melt season came to an end and the melt season started in earnest. Now data is available for 18 July 2014, so I'm giving a brief summary of the sea ice situation one month on.

That 'no warming since 1998' bollocks meme.

I've had this blog post written but on hold for some months, I never seemed to have the mind to publish, but I've just stumbled upon someone claiming 'no global warming for 18 years', and it's moved me to post.

Mid July Status

This post is really a very late June Status Part 3 because my day job is crowding out this hobby, but rather than restrict to June PIOMAS data, I've added in some extent data to drag it into mid July. So, I'm sorry but that means it's dauntingly long, although I tried to keep the words to a minimum and let the graphs convey message.