Snow

During the recent discussion of ice albedo and how strongly the warming influence of northern hemisphere sea ice loss outweighs the cooling influence of southern hemisphere sea ice gain, it was mentioned by several readers that snow loss in the northern hemisphere is also a major warming influence, a potent amplifying feedback of global warming.

Oh Shit

Climatesight has a post which is both fascinating and disturbing. It reports recent research that carbon emissions from melting permafrost may have a much bigger impact than had previously been accounted for.

Sea Ice Insolation

I recently posted about the difference in sea ice changes between the Arctic and Antarctic. A comment appeared from Dave Burton which included some nonsense trying to claim that the Antarctic sea ice gain is more important for climate than the much greater Arctic loss. He happened to be the same Dave Burton associated with “NC-20,” a group which tried to get the North Carolina state legislature to outlaw any official use of sea level rise forecasts other than the extrapolation of a linear trend based on past observations.

Sea Level Rise along the Atlantic Coast of North America north of Cape Hatteras

One of those commenting on the paper by Shepard et al. in the journal Natural Hazards was Albert Parker. Rather than dissect his comment on Shepard et al., let’s take a look at another paper he recently published in that same journal, Oscillations of Sea Level Rise along the Atlantic Coast of North America north of Cape Hatteras, (2012, Nat Hazards, DOI: 10.1007/s11069-012-0354-7).

Unnatural Hazards

Christine Shepard has recently published her first peer-reviewed paper as lead author, Assessing future risk: quantifying the effects of sea level rise on storm surge risk for the southern shores of Long Island, New York (Shepard et al. 2012, Nat. Hazards, 60:727–745 DOI 10.1007/s11069-011-0046-8). Such a first is usually (and it should be) a moment of triumph for a young scientist.

Poles Apart

As most of you are aware, Arctic sea ice has shrunk dramatically over the last several decades, because of man-made global warming. This year it has broken the records for lowest area, lowest extent, and lowest volume. Perhaps more to the point, those records were broken not by a little — not even by a modest amount — the were broken by a helluva lot. Yes, a hell of a lot. The loss of Arctic sea ice has been nothing short of astounding.

Arctic Sea Ice: Turning Points

Perhaps the most obvious “turning point” in Arctic sea ice is the stunning decline at the summer minimum of 2007. The annual minimum extent for every year since then has been less than for every year before then. To many, it marks a new era for the ice pack covering the Arctic ocean. The post-2007 era has been makedly different from what happened before.

Sea Ice Triple Play

PIOMAS has released updated sea ice volume estimates a little earlier than usual. We have now broken the record for lowest sea ice volume, making a “triple play” of record-breaking volume, extent, and area.

Sea Ice: Climate vs Weather

In their desperation to deny the impact of global warming on Arctic sea ice, fake skeptics like Anthony Watts, Marc Morano, and Steve Goddard have gone out of their way to blame this year’s crash dive on the weather. In particular, they want to blame it all on the Arctic storm in August.

Apparently they don’t get the difference between weather and climate. Let’s help them out, shall we?

Ice Over

We’re witnessing a remarkable decline in Arctic sea ice. The annual minimum is taking a nosedive: