Is Arctic sea ice shrinking or expanding? | Met Office News Blog
Arctic summer sea ice extent has a lot of year to year variability because it can be heavily influenced by weather patterns
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Also sea ice extent is only one part of the story; it’s the volume of sea ice that we should also be considering that depends on ice thickness as well as extent.
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Extent has not yet reached its minimum for 2013, so it’s too early to make any definitive judgements. However, using NSIDC data to August this year we know that while the ice cover was greater than at the same time last year, it was still ranked as the sixth lowest August extent in the 34-year record.
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So all the evidence suggests the long-term decline of Arctic sea ice continues.
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Met -- "So all the evidence suggests the long-term decline of Arctic sea ice continues."
Well, all the evidence suggests that prior to 1979 the Arctic sea ice, and presumably the volume as well, had experienced a rather lengthy cycle of expansion. We recall that such was presented in graphic form in the first IPCC report.
This would suggest that, as the IPCC chart illustrated, that the sea ice extent was less than the present extent, at the beginning of that naturally occurring cycle of variability.
So . .
So all the evidence suggests the long-term cycles of variability of Arctic sea ice continues unabated.
Also, sure looking like the September melt may have ended 3 days ago.
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