Arctic Ice again

[fred_smith]

The annual average extent is now declining at a rate of -4.5 percent per decade relative to the 1979 to 2000 average and -4.6 percent per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average. The 1981 to 2010 period is the 30-year climatology used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for their climate normals. Thirty years is a commonly-used period to define average or normal climate conditions. It is long enough to capture much climate variability, such as the different modes of the Arctic Oscillation, and short enough to be relevant for human timescales, such as agricultural cycles. NOAA updates its climate normals every ten years. For Arctic sea ice, use of the 1981 to 2010 period results in a lower extent than the 1979 to 2000 period, as seen in Figure 5, because the low extents of the last decade are included.

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The average sea ice extent for December 2012 was 12.20 million square kilometers (4.71 million square miles). This is 1.16 million square kilometers (448,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average for the month, and is the second-lowest December extent in the satellite record.

So we have a decline in average ice for December 2012 at about 10 percent from the 1979 figure… and this is a problem why? Remember that 1979 to 1982 represented the low point or rather the high point. So all of this warming and the sea ice is down 10 percent from the very coldest period? yawn… somewhere polar bears are no doubt drowning… one hopes… at least THAT makes for somewhat amusing photo journalism (cough cough) sorry must be a cold coming on from all of this ice… er… whatever…

[fred_smith]

Sorry, let me rephrase, that this is 10 percent below the average from this entire period and not from 1979, so? what is the big deal if we are starting with a benchmark of very very cold and extreme ice cover that it falls back below that to a more reasonable amount. Up 25-30 percent, now down what? an equal amount from the 1979 very cold abnormally cold figure? and what happened to all the dire accounts of polar bear life? I really miss those… sorta kinda like we do not hear anymore about baby seals being clubbed… where is the fun in not hearing about these stories? I protest. J-accuse! :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: