Antarctic sea ice shrinks to record low

Antarctica's sea ice level tends to go up and down, but has been growing about 3% per year since 1979 - now it's at a record low. Meanwhile, Arctic ice just keeps melting more and more every year.

Antarctic sea ice shrinks to record low

Sea ice around Antarctica shrunk to its lowest monthly extent on record in January, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.

Antarctic sea ice extent averaged just 4.04 million square kilometers, 1.19 million square kilometers below the 1981 through 2010 average. That’s 280,000 square kilometers smaller than the previous record low, set in 2006.

The new record comes just two years after the largest January Antarctic sea ice extent on record. Southern Hemisphere sea ice has been growing by about 3 percent per decade since recordkeeping began in 1979, albeit with considerable year-to-year variability.

On the other side of the globe, Arctic sea ice had its smallest January extent on record, edging out the previous record set last year.

a reply to: soficrow

Wow just a few months ago it was at a record high amount of ice, now it is at a record low???....

Almost sounds like fake news.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: soficrow

Wow just a few months ago it was at a record high amount of ice, now it is at a record low???....

Almost sounds like fake news.

Someone is lying, but we won't know who until it's too late.

a reply to: seasonal

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: soficrow

Wow just a few months ago it was at a record high amount of ice, now it is at a record low???....

Almost sounds like fake news.

I know, right? ...This winter, we kept flipping from -30 or -40C one day to -5C the next - back and forth, a few days at a time. Truly weird.

I'm hoping to live long enough to enjoy a tropical climate right where I am.






PS. The report from 2 months ago referred to measurements from 2 years ago, I think.

The new record comes just two years after the largest January Antarctic sea ice extent on record. Southern Hemisphere sea ice has been growing by about 3 percent per decade since recordkeeping began in 1979, albeit with considerable year-to-year variability.

It is summer over there so???

The evidence is there...

Arctic Sea ice news

Arctic News

Take the time, do the research, know the truth....

Sea ice hits record lows at both poles

Hot temps in November, and trend continues

But could 10 million wind pumps save us...

Plan to refreeze Arctic before it really melts

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: soficrow

Wow just a few months ago it was at a record high amount of ice, now it is at a record low???....

Almost sounds like fake news.

How they ascertain those record levels exactly is a mystery science all its own.

a reply to: Rezlooper

The evidence is there...

Records determined one year at a time? Thats short sighted. Climate is a long haul thing. Not aggrandized hi water marks or low ice flows.

Pretty sure sea ice is at record low levels and land ice is at record high levels.

Or maybe it's Arctic versus Antarctic.

insideclimatenews.org...< br />

They have only been keeping records for 37 years, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, I think we need a "few" more years of data before we start panicking.

originally posted by: Tardacus
They have only been keeping records for 37 years, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, I think we need a "few" more years of data before we start panicking.

Yea, but a "few" more years and it may be too late

originally posted by: Rezlooper

Yea, but a "few" more years and it may be too late

a reply to: seasonal

Two years ago, not two months ago.

Interestingly, the article mentions that Southern Hemisphere sea ice has been growing by 3% per decade since 1979...as the researcher in the article mentions, it's all about context. What does this all mean? With the year-over-year variability Antarctic sea ice experiences, it's really difficult to extrapolate anything of import beyond it grows and shrinks yearly...Artic sea ice seems to be a different story all together, however.

Context is key.

the polar ice is disappearing...

I really think the lesser ice sheet size is not from weather but from geology...

the undersea volcanos and heat vents are melting the undersides of the ice sheets which causes the ice sheet to break up or else push the ice out into the seas where it 'calves' into the water...resulting in less ice covering

which of course the global-warming crowd Spins into the global warming Tale...or Climate Change

I moved to the south from Michigan to Pennsylvania back in 1965 because the accepted trend back then was a return to colder northern America and warmer southern America... have resided in coastal SC ever since, even despite the almost annual ice-storms in February and 6 inches of snow back in the 1980s

Antarctica has numerous under the ice volcanos which are active at present...i'd bet large ice-voids, lakes, even rivers are abundant below the cold, icy surface terrain

originally posted by: Rezlooper

originally posted by: Tardacus
They have only been keeping records for 37 years, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, I think we need a "few" more years of data before we start panicking.

Yea, but a "few" more years and it may be too late

Might also be irreversible and part of the natural cycle. Granted, humans are a cancer on this planet and seem to do everything in their power to destroy everything, including themselves, but I'm not convinced this is human caused. Helped along? Definitely.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: soficrow

Wow just a few months ago it was at a record high amount of ice, now it is at a record low???....

Almost sounds like fake news.

A big chunk must have fell off recently so they can update their data to favor their propaganda.

originally posted by: Rezlooper
But could 10 million wind pumps save us...

Plan to refreeze Arctic before it really melts

Well thats about the stupidest idea i've seen for a long time. How much time and money was wasted on this study?

Desch and his team have put forward the scheme in a paper that has just been published in Earth’s Future, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, and have worked out a price tag for the project: $500bn (£400bn).

originally posted by: superman2012

originally posted by: Rezlooper

originally posted by: Tardacus
They have only been keeping records for 37 years, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, I think we need a "few" more years of data before we start panicking.

Yea, but a "few" more years and it may be too late

Might also be irreversible and part of the natural cycle. Granted, humans are a cancer on this planet and seem to do everything in their power to destroy everything, including themselves, but I'm not convinced this is human caused. Helped along? Definitely.

Yep, I can't say either whether we are the cause or not, and if its cyclical, then we just had the dumb luck of being here this time around. I do believe we've definitely helped it along.

a reply to: Rezlooper

or maybe it`s just a natural cycle and there`s nothing we can do to stop it. most of north America was covered in ice at one point and may get covered in ice again.

a reply to: soficrow

Wow! I never realized it fluctuated that quickly! It's incredible that we are still in our infancy in understanding the large and complex systems of the Earth.

To put it in perspective, once we've gained enough knowledge (and computing power), we'll be able to predict, to some degree at least, how much sea ice there will be well ahead of time, much as we can predict temperatures fairly accurately, at least a few days in the future, today. We baaaaarely understand how our own planet works!

That's not a complaint - that's awe-inspiring!!