Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Climate Watch: "The Arctic’s warming trends are ‘truly unprecedented’"


A record-setting year for the Arctic

Every day seems to be Horrible Climate Change News Day. We learn of major airports that are going to be underwater because of sea level rise, a chunk of sea ice the size of India melting in the Antarctic, and glaciers cracking from the inside out. Today’s depressing news comes from a report on the Arctic’s warming trends. The report, sponsored by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found that unprecedented warm air over the Arctic caused extensive melting of sea ice, as well as land-based ice and snow in Greenland.

The so-called Arctic Report Card showed a few new “records” this year: the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice from mid-October to late November was the lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. In the North American Arctic, spring snow cover in May fell to the lowest levels since satellite observations began in 1967. And the average air temperature over land this year was also the highest on record, representing a 6.3-degree Fahrenheit increase since 1900. The reports was released today at the annual American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco. Read More

Related Article:
Arctic Is Warming At 'Astonishing' Rates, Researchers Say

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