November 27, 2009
One of Canada’s top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world’s polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared.
Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding. But David Barber says the thick, multiyear frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin “rotten” ice which can’t support the weight of the bears.
“It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multiyear sea ice – the whole world thought it was multiyear sea ice,” said Dr. Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea.
“Unfortunately what we found was that the multiyear [ice]has all but disappeared. What’s left is this remnant, rotten ice.”
Arctic sea ice has nearly vanished, expert fears – The Globe and Mail
But it is worse than it seems. According to PIOMAS, the ice is much thinner now than it was in 2009 – when all that was left was thin, rotten first-year ice.
Amazing that global warmers aren’t frothing over this post like they were frothing a couple weeks ago. I knew they would only blow in, blow up, then blow out. How did I know? Because that’s what they always do. They fill comment threads with comments for about 3 days. Then it’s over. THEY ARE SHALLOW! They don’t have the capacity to stay.
The ice formed on the north end of Cornwallis Island this weekend and is moving south fast. There is ice to the south, that is usually gone, but this year it’s still there.
There is a warning out for it:
Ice Coverage
Special ice warning in effect.Open water except strips and patches of 8 tenths of first-year ice
along the Southampton Island coast south and east of Coral Harbour.
Unusual presence of sea ice continuing through the period.
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/marine/iceConditions_e.html?mapID=06&siteID=02701&stationID=YPX
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS54/20120903180000_WIS54_0006631959.gif