Though in numbers and area/extent this spring have been "painfully" slow, I just have to emphasize the difference between the interior & and main icepack North of 80 degrees: It's SO battered and broken up, almost shredded to pieces compared to 2012! Must be a nightmare to cross this Territory these days...the survival of the fittest of polarbears = the most athletic!

What I find rather intriguing is the corrolation between late refreeze of the Arctic in the autumn to the negative AO. Currently it's standing at an incredible -5 to -6, making a "hell of" a winter in Northern Europe these days (March 2012 was 15-20 C hotter!). Western Greenland OTOH is witnessing springtemps Way Above normal for the season, all this more or less thanks to the AO, right?! Will this extremeness just keep on getting more extreme as the ice extent spirals downward? Anyway, spring is upon us, at least in the Northern hemisphere, people tend to forget that global warming don't necessarily mean HOT at their place that very day...

Hi folks, finally the dawn of a new promising spring is upon us, and signs of doom is looming at every corner! Well we better grit our teeth and try to be convinced that our words and oppinions DO matter, in the long run, right!? Anyway, though the Kane bridge do exist also this year, and is slightly more eastward stretched than the former 2 years, I have to show how much open water was present at the same time in the year 2010: http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?subset=Arctic_r03c02.2010063.terra What differences will this lead to, and of how much greater importance is the ice export out the Fram strait, compared?! You guys have kept up a formidable speed and level during the winter season, its darn hard just to dig in. Also a big salute to A-team, you`ve brought a truly new dimension into this blog. Now we are eager to get on with the melt season...

Been a "spider in the corner" for a while, but the steam and tempo both in the arctic and surely this blog, have reached New levels lately! Congrats to Neven to soon be able to celebrating 100 followers, and just by increasing this number and thereby spreading the word further, will most likely bring these important topics closer to worlds attention!! I, for one, feel proud to have had the chance to be a part of this community for the last couple years. So keep going Neven et. Al!!

Friday the 13'th, an omen... Well, only for the Greenland glaciers! Also today the temperature at Summit, 3200 meters above sealevel!, reached at least +2, so one might just imagine the meltrate a little lower in the terrain! An exellent article Philippe! Btw, there is quite a few on this blog being not-native english speaking! Even Neven himself I believe! More about Watson River: http://sermitsiaq.ag/node/131146 The article in danish (similar to norwegian!), tell about 3.500.000 liters per second passing the now ruined bridge in Kangerlussaq, the former record was like 2.000.000 liter!

Neven: According to the historic weather dating back to 2003, such has not happened in July at Summit! http://www.wunderground.com/history/station/04416/2012/7/10/MonthlyHistory.html So it ought to be worth a post!

+ 2,2 at Summit yesterday! And the massive meltdown start crippling the communities at the western coast of Greenland. At Kangerlussaq the bridge binding east and west together, was teared to pices due to tremendous meltwater in the river, also cutting off the waterpipe supplying the town. Watch some videos: http://sermitsiaq.ag/node/131108 http://sermitsiaq.ag/node/131086 And the good weather seem to continue for a while...

The Polar Bears seeking refuge from the Heatwawe striken Churchill, now seem to have reached the "Pole", web cam 2 show a lot of new foot prints! They are very polite and civilized bears not to mess around with either webcam(s) or the poles stuck in the ground...eh....Ice!

One last note... Todays surface pressure map from DMI... http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/weather/mslp_latest.big.png ...show clearly 2 strong lowpressures going on and both are easily visible and refound on the lance-modis map! http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?mosaic=Arctic.2012193.terra.4km That's what I call everyday Art! How often does such lowpressures take place in the Arctic during the summer? And will they also be an extra meltdown force, churning up the fast ice, pushing it around, mixing in saltwater in the snow and also perhaps leading both hot air and water from more southern latitudes into the colder Arctic, north of 80 degree?!

Bob & Neven: That picture of "old" snow or ice remind me of easter snow in Norway (if it still exist at that time!), and that snow is very corny and rotten, often filled with dirt, thereby also reducing albedo. Snow/ice at this part of the lifecycle is very prone to melt away fast, thus a super strong positive feedback! Any articles or reports dealing with speculation about the meltdown rate currently taking place at Greenland?

At Churchill, Manitoba,Hudson Bay, "Polar Bear Capital of the World", they have today been reporting 31 C for 5 consequtive hours, just "smashing" the record maximum temp for this date, set 2011, with roughly 11 C!! And they got Polar bears at that place...almost unbelievable that is. Someone call 911...

Mdoliner: That conference being 2 year old, but "the rotten MYI" phenomen was debated on this blog, just as the Polarstern crossing the Pole July/Aug. also more or less concluded that the state of MYI is both thin (1-1,5 meter) and pretty rotten. With that as background curtain we all await what Polarstern is up to this season!You may track the whereabouts of the german scientific ship and the frequent air and seatemps they are doing. Just this morning west of Svalbard they reported of -2,4 C, must be pretty much the coldest spot in the Arctic region lately! http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=DBLK Neven: WiFi is "almost as important" these days as a sucessful harvest back in the Viking era in Greenland 900 years ago... (One might speculate how fragile our community would be in case of a sudden temperaturedrop or rise of 2-3 degrees!? )

Janne: Oops, in my head I thought west, but wrote east, SORRY about that! They resided mainly in two strongholds, whereupon the southernmost was clearly the largest. New discoveries released this spring show that they succumbed due to lack of ability to adapt to the inuitt way of life, they trusted to much upon agriculture, and also the collapse of whalrus "horn" prices in Europe (the import of elephanthorn had started!)meant a dramatic decrease of income and traffic across the Atlantic now more frequently filled with ice... http://www.earthtimes.org/scitech/climate-change-killed-viking-settlement-greenland/942/

Beringstrait is Heating Up! Take a look at DMI's anomaly map: http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/satellite/index.uk.php And compare with just 2 weeks ago! Amazing how hot water many places, close to the iceedge.

Greenland is 2,166,086 km2 of size, and just a fast glance at MODIS, will tell that a snowcover of 2,03 MK is SO far out, and what is defined as Snow? Also ice beneath the now melted wintersnow? Werther: I also took notice of the 24,3 C yesterday! So far in Oslo this July we've had only 1 day surpassing that, but the summer over here is also close to a disaster...the negative AO values seem to hit the north-west part of Europe hard. It's a now proven fact that the Vikings once populating eastern Greenland, had to move due to a ca. 2 C drop in yearly temperature, so they would most likely nod approvingly to the weather nowadays!

Wind has been picking up last 36 hours north of Greenland, according to buoy 4, an indication of increasing export rate through the Fram strait? Also very hot temps and some decent winds in the Pevek-Tiksi- Zaliv Gedenshtroma triangle; might be the extra push needed to churn and melt the somewhat thicker ice over there. Though I'm puzzeled by the combination of socalled thicker MYI and the seemingly smashed up ice, just holding together for no other reason than "where are we else to go"!! The best melting weather for ice & snow is a combination of wind and rain... BTW, Good work as always, Neven! Don't you go for vaccation soon?

The current situation is more or like as same time 2010, so unless the export through Fram come to a complete halt, I wouldn't be to much worried....yet!

Ha! Seke Rob, you're the wizard(one of many!)in here, no doubt about that, keep up the good steam, just as far as you don't spill the excess heat into the Arctic;-) ...

Extent is naturally stopped by the spring gearing up in the more southern latitudes,thus nibbling at the edges, volume continues to build further north where the heat of the spring is not particularly present until may. Some of the same dynamics are behind the summer and winter months, the darkest month isn't necesseraly the coldest...

A closer inspection have made me conclude that between monday 2. July 20:55 ( http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120702205519.jpg ), and tueday 3. July 08:45 (http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120703084445.jpg ), "the day of the footprints" in front of polecam 1, there also occurred a large iceshove, easily shown in the background, left side, of the pic. A coincidence? Or do we have an intruder with submarine, camouflaged as ice, stalking around at the top of the world.... Just some irrelevant "theories", on a lousy weather saturday outside Oslo:-).

The weather in the Canadien Acrchipelago lately have been just insanely hot, watching through the eyes of MODIS, the contrast between the barren snowless (soon also iceless if this continues...)land and the still mostly icecovered straits, just is baffling! So I tend to agree with you, Ballantinegray1, much of the ice will just melt down in situ. Still, albedo and weatherregime in Nunavut & Northwest Territories are not comparative to the conditions closer to the pole...but alas, the ice is thin and "winds of change" and currents may prove me wrong;-).