Posted on 02/16/2008 10:26:17 PM PST by neverdem
There's an upside to the extreme cold temperatures northern Canadians have endured in the last few weeks: scientists say it's been helping winter sea ice grow across the Arctic, where the ice shrank to record-low levels last year.
Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas.
Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years.
"It's nice to know that the ice is recovering," Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist with the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, told CBC News on Thursday.
"That means that maybe the perennial ice would not go down as low as last year."
Canadian scientists are also noticing growing ice coverage in most areas of the Arctic, including the southern Davis Strait and the Beaufort Sea.
"Clearly, we're seeing the ice coverage rebound back to more near normal coverage for this time of year," said Gilles Langis, a senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa.
Winter sea ice could keep expanding The cold is also making the ice thicker in some areas, compared to recorded thicknesses last year, Lagnis added.
"The ice is about 10 to 20 centimetres thicker than last year, so that's a significant increase," he said.
If temperatures remain cold this winter, Langis said winter sea ice coverage will continue to expand.
But he added that it's too soon to say what impact this winter will have on the Arctic summer sea ice, which reached its lowest coverage ever recorded in the summer of 2007.
That was because the thick multi-year ice pack that survives a summer melt has been decreasing in recent years, as well as moving further south. Langis said the ice pack is currently located about 130 kilometres from the Mackenzie Delta, about half the distance from where it was last year.
The polar regions are a concern to climate specialists studying global warming, since those regions are expected to feel the impact of climate change sooner and to a greater extent than other areas.
Sea ice in the Arctic helps keep those regions cool by reflecting sunlight that might otherwise be absorbed by darker ocean or land surfaces.
How could this be. A seminary drop-out person said here was global warming.
What are you people, idiots? This WINTER has been much colder than the last several WINTERs and the sea ice has expanded this WINTER compared to previous WINTERS. Can’t you even follow that?
Sure, that is why we have global warming...isn’t it?
Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that it is now winter in the Arctic and they are 5 months into the 6 months of darkness that happens every winter (which the global alarmers do not seem to ever take into account or do not understand apparently.)
The Ice will RETURN every winter when the sun goes down below the horizon on September 22 and the ice will start melting when the sun rises above the horizon on March 22 ever year.
I would argue that normal is when my ancestors grew wine grapes back on the "family farm" in Iceland.
If this guy is actually supposed to be a forecaster then I think the Canadian taxpayers are getting screwed. He should have seen this coming!
Whatever would we do without experts?
Cheers!
Yeah, it’s winter and the climate is a DYNAMIC system.
You bet they're concerned since the "models" that they use are predicting further melting of the arctic ice and they have reputations and careers on the line. They need Global Warming. They have grown drunk from the Gore Kool-Aid and are counting on it. If the arctic ice pack continues to grow they might just be out of a job.
Well, since the Arctic has less than 3% of the world's ice, the entire article is pretty irrelevant anyway.
The only relevance to Arctic ice is if it melts enough to allow year-round shipping.
Them's the facts.
Another stunning DUH moment by the MSM.
I believe they will, it's already a given fact that obesity kills......
A couple of weeks ago, we were on a cruise to the Mexican Riveria, and it was cool in the mornings and evenings down there.
I talked to a the seasoned tour boat captains about the cool weather. All 3 captains noted that all of the 3 cities, Puerto Vallerto, Mazatlan, and Cabo had been in the coldest winter in 50 years.
One of the cruise ship’s senior line officers said that the oceans were cooler the past 3-5 years than the previous 50 years. He sneered about the bs of Gorebull Warming.
I know that...I was poking fun at the alarmist tone of these types of articles.
Hi Yank, so great to see you here. I owe you an email.
So you made it. Seeing any wildlife out there?
Pinging Diana, see it’s actually warm where you are (grin)
And sociologists in Rome have made startling discoveries in the hat-wearing habits of a certain High Priest of the Catholic Church...
Fig leaf.
Thanks for the ping!
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