Arctic Sea Ice
RealClimate:
RealClimate » Arctic sea ice watch: A few people have already remarked on some pretty surprising numbers in Arctic sea ice extent this year (the New York Times has also noticed). The minimum extent is usually in early to mid September, but this year, conditions by Aug 9 had already beaten all previous record minima. Given that there is at least a few more weeks of melting to go, it looks like the record set in 2005 will be unequivocally surpassed.... Just to give a sense of how dramatic the changes have been over the last 28 years, the figures... show the minimum ice extent in September 1979, and the situation today (Aug 9, 2007). The reduction is around 1.2 million square km of ice, a little bit larger than the size of California and Texas combined.
