MAY argh

I believe the PIOMAS max will be reached quite early this year. Just an accumulation of data, nothing concrete to point to, but early/mid March would be my guess. Actually, I think I'm thinking of sunlight, and that in a few weeks this will be 24hrs in places that are already weak.

@Werther I consider what's happening to our planet as an evolutionary event. Our species needs a kick up the butt! And here it is. "Late Precambrian times" What was that like? Will my great grandchildren be buying land in Antarctica?

It was interesting to read this in the article "After watching Shell’s string of mishaps from the sidelines, Norway-based oil and gas company Statoil said two weeks ago that it would consider walking away from its Arctic offshore leases if exploration proves too risky and expensive." Perhaps for the foreseeable future the Arctic will be 'drill free' ( let's hope so ) but I'm also concerned about the increased shipping in general and movement up there, so many ways things can go wrong. I think the only way we can get 7 billion people to agree is when they have no choice.

Off topic - Neven can we have an open thread for March? Hot earth article http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-08/climate-study/4561164 Australian weather records an incredible find http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-06/weather-books-am/4554930

This is probably a really dumb question, but I've always wondered if a massive chunk of the GIS would ever slide off and into the ocean. I mean a huge part, sliding off because of melt, a mile thick and hundreds of miles across?? Is that at all possible. I know that's far fetched but just asking...it's an open thread :]

Yeah, I know there are penguins down south, but people should know both ends are melting.

Dad...what did polar bears look like? Mum...where did all the penguins go? Granddad...was there really ice in the Arctic?

oh @Russell McKane My air conditioner doesn't work ! Home all day with the curtains closed sniffing the air for smoke. Had the cat and dog inside with me too, lots of fun and games

@Russell McKane Hello neighbour. I'm up the hill a bit in the lower mountains. Yep, it was very hot and windy today. We got up to 44.7C. Fried the leaves on the rhubarb plants I have growing into crumbling pieces of dry paper :( The interior warmed up more than usual this year due to a three week delay in the monsoons up north. Now that's in full swing it will cool down once the air starts circulating into the center of the country. You can already see that happening in recent satellite pics.

The biggest cattle property in the world is in South Australia - from Wiki "roughly 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2; 9,400 sq mi) which is slightly larger than Israel. It is 8,000 km² larger than Alexandria Station (its nearest rival) in the country's Northern Territory and eight times the size of the United States biggest ranch, King Ranch in Texas, which is 825,000 acres (3,340 km2; 1,289 sq mi)" They only have 10,000 head at the moment because of drought in SA but when it rains they'll expand that again.

Yes, you are right, more rain doesn't automatically mean more farmland. It does mean more grazing land. It's not as if the Australian desert is dead soil. It's rich red and black soil that thrives the moment you add water. There are millions of head of cattle in the Northern Territory and Western Queensland, rounded up by helicopter and moved with the rain. Grazing properties can take up hundreds of thousand of square kilometres of what you would call 'bush' or 'desert'. They are not grazed out either, the area is too big. That sort of farming is real and done now and will expand as the rain arrives.

People like A-Team seem to forget Australia is HUGE. It has a diversity of climate and environment like very few other countries. We are probably well placed to handle most change that comes our way. I actually see Australia benefiting overall from a warming planet. Not that I want one, but hey, people forget how big this place is.

@A-Team. The entire top half of Australia is becoming more tropical, and as the equatorial band expands from the equator Australia will receive more rain over the next century, turning what is now desert into blooming semi-tropical land. It's the most probable conclusion which sees the bottom half of Australia becoming drier, and the top half wetter. But since the bottom half is mostly already desert, we will probably gain farm/grazing land up north more than lose down south. I wouldn't worry about us too much :)

I've been reading the latest article about the Kulluk rig in our local Sydney paper http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-03/runaway-oil-rig-dragged-tugs-for-miles/4450990 I am staggered by the amount of money already spent in Arctic drilling and oil exploration but it's not surprising ( unfortunately ). I can only see this continuing until the technology catches up to their desires, and it will. They will create the technology and machinery to do this. Maybe not this year or next but they will. Imagine how much money is going into R&D behind the scenes! Thank you Neven for your continued effort in creating your blogs and providing us with so much incredible data.

We get good coverage of the Arctic ice melt in Australia - here is the latest from ABC News website - a graphic showing loss of ice since 1984. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-27/arctic-sea-ice-maps-before-after-1984-2012/4283418 Thanks again Neven for your outstanding blog and thanks to the other very informed contributors.

Is this image from the Healy showing storm- damaged ice, considering their position? Just curious really..I'm learning :) http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/albums/2012/20120818-0101.jpeg

Thanks for the welcome Neven. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next week or so. Lots of 'peaks' still to come.

This is my first time posting so if the link doesn't work please forgive me... I've been watching the new storm forming on the link Terry kindly posted earlier today http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/satellite/animateweb_e.html?imagetype=satellite&imagename=hrpt_dfo_nir_m_..................jpg&nbimages=1&clf With each pass it does seem to be getting stronger. What do you think it will do to the remaining ice if it builds for a few days?