By Cap Allon – Electroverse
Arctic sea ice is ending its summer melt season well above the minimum extent measured in most recent years — cool and cloudy weather has helped preserve much of the ice this year.
Sea ice extent, as measured on a five-day rolling average, was 4.73 million square kilometres (1.83 million square miles) on Wednesday, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) — that puts the extent far higher than last year’s low of 3.832 million square kilometre.
Extent, defined as the area with at least 15 percent ice cover, has been incredibly resilient this year, and it’s helping put to bed those ridiculous notions of a “summer free Arctic”, which even to this day, after decades of failed foretelling, are still doing the rounds.
The mainstream media won’t touch this latest development with a ten-foot seal club. And if they do, they’ll juxtapose it with stories of very localized melt — this is an obfuscating tactic which has long-been abused by the climate ambulance chasers and ‘pop-scientists’ among us ..
Rick Thoman, a scientist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, attributed this year’s healthy ice gains to a persistent cold low-pressure system over the northern Beaufort Sea that sent northwest winds over the Chukchi.
Melt off Alaska stalled in late July and most of August “with that cold low just sitting there and spinning,” he said.
