EnviroLink Forum

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topst ... smsnnews11

As Americans were donning green shirts and tossing back pints of Guinness, the Arctic was limping toward its annual wintertime sea ice maximum. According to data released Friday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, it was the second-lowest annual maximum on record.

Sea ice in the Arctic very likely peaked on March 17 at 5.6 million square miles (14.5 million square kilometers), just 450,000 square miles above its maximum extent in 2017. That was the poorest wintertime sea ice showing since satellite record-keeping began in 1979. The four lowest peaks on record? 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. It’s almost as if we’re experiencing some sort of trend.

<snip>

Antarctic sea ice also veered into near record-low territory this year, although the reasons aren’t as clear cut. For the second year in a row, the sea ice rimming our planet’s southernmost continent plunged, reaching a summertime minimum of 842,000 square miles on Feb. 20-21. It was the second lowest minimum on record, just 27,00 square miles above a record low set last March.

Unlike the Arctic, which has seen dramatic sea ice declines in recent decades, Antarctic sea ice has been slowly but steadily increasing, with the exception of the last few years. Last year’s sea ice plunge, deemed “very unusual” by Antarctic ice researchers, was later attributed to a series of remarkably powerful storms driven by natural variability.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Hey, that does sound weird.
It's almost as if it's warming!!
But that can't be.....

Something happened in 2016 where global sea ice dropped precipitously to over eight standard deviations below normal, and never fully recovered to levels seen before the large loss. Currently it is hovering at around three standard deviations below normal. In a normalized data series, you would expect to see values below seven standard deviations once every billion years.

This is the graph that really tells the global ice story i think.
And almost everyone forgets variabilty.
2015; hottest ever with El Nino
2016; hottest ever with El Nino
2017; second hottest ever with La Nina
2018...a lot will depend on that darned Enso

It's similar when people discuss the hurricanes after last year being so bad.
El Nino event = low frequency of storms
Neutral/Nina = high frequency of storms

Hi, Snowy!
Haven't heard from you in a while.

A couple of years ago I read a report from a University that stated if we all painted our roofs white, it would buy us 100 years by reflecting the heat back out of the atmosphere.

I painted my roof white. Won't you join me?

Bob

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Interesting. Do you have any links? I'd like to learn more. So far I've only read one side of the question.

What I have read is that it compensates for the loss of white ice which supposedly does the same thing. But like I said, I've only read one viewpoint but from multiple sources.

I don't use the Air Conditioner, and I live in Florida. AC usage is responsible for 37% of the worlds energy use, and it's growing. Plus the exhaust from the AC units must be contributing to the heating of the world.

When I grew up, there was no AC in homes, and everybody had a white roof. It keeps the indoors much cooler.

Now the homes are all Air Conditioned and everybody has a dark roof. Of course that makes the AC work even harder, using more energy (much of it is coal and/or natural gas generated) and spewing more hot air out of the air handler.

I can see an argument for dark roofs 'up north' where the main concern is heating the homes. But on the other hand, that's where we are losing white sea ice.

I guess it doesn't matter as people aren't going to change, heck we can't stop them from driving 2 ton, 10mpg pickup trucks to haul nothing heavier than groceries. But I'd like to read bot sides of the story anyway.

Bob

Even without a big Niño, we are still running at a record low level for global sea ice extent.

I'm glad I was born in the 1940s. Things may get pretty rough for the "other 95%" in a couple of decades or sooner.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

There's a report out that the recent heatwave on Greenland melted some 217 billion tons of ice last month.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein