In stead of going through Arctic round trips and chance calculations, you can also turn it around and ask (I'd like an answer to that question too) "how old is the oldest piece of floating ice in the arctic". If the object just happened to be next to that piece of ice we have the answer.

Thanks for sharing this sad news. His lectures did actually influence my thinking, "the greatest shortcomming" is on my mind almost daily when blogging

Hi Neilt, I wasn't saying anything about the current solar activity level. I was pointing at 2005-2011 and saying that IF the suns activity was directly influencing polar melt you wouldn't expect lows (records!) during that era: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif Anyways, I personally think that what we see this year is polar weather, not climate, in al it's bizarre appearances. (Re read my post, I did say "has been", I meant "was". That's what you get from not being native in English :-) )

Aren't the "the suns activity is causing the sudden melt" people shooting themselves in the foot here? Because if it's the suns activity that is causing the melt, than an inactive sun must lead to more ice, right? But the sun has been at a an extreme long and deep minimum between 2005 and 2011. So for sure one wouldn't expect the 7 lowest Sea Ice Extents in the past 30+ years in exactly this period.

Does anybody know what's happening over at NSIDC Sea ice Extent, there seems to be a thawing trend..... How unusual is that in November?

A little of topic, but I'd like to make you aware of an iPad app called MeteoEarth HD (0,99€ this weekend, I have no financial or other relationship with them). This app shows you amongst others winds/pressure systems in real time projected on a globe, polar projection is very well. I had this "seeing Google Earth for the first time" experience. This is the first time I've seen the cold air actually flow of of Greenland. The Philippine Typhoon was also spectacular. I think it'll help me better understand next years ice movements on the Pole. Highly recommended.

Meanwhile in The Netherlands: De Graaf (PVV): "De grootste wetenschappelijke fraude ooit is de klimaatfraude" or in English: De Graaf (of the one member, 2 million sheeple party PVV) : "The greatest scientific fraud ever is climategate" I'll stick with jetstream research, just to be sure.

Interesting stuff! As an amateur weather experiencer :-) I was amazed that the almost one month of north/northeasterly wind that we experienced this winter got so little attention here in Holland (even though it caused a major lengthening of the winter). I've been thinking that it would be nice if there was some measure that shows the cumulative momentum of the air in the Northern Hemisphere Jetstream (all the air between 30 and 60 degrees North). This measure would be high if it moves East-West, as it normally does, and low if it strongly meanders North-South/South-North, as during blockages. I can't ration if this value would be static (a blockage on one side of the earth must lead to a speedup elsewhere) or if the circulation around the earth can actually change/diminish/stop.

Does anybody know if there is somethng like a "cummalative rotation energy of the atmosphere". I'm asking because I have a feeling that the atmosphere is not rotating as fast as it used to. Here in Holland we seem to have less SW wind and more N or S winds. If this were a global fenomena the rotation energy of the atmosphere would be lower. This would be a proxy for the condition (heat content) of the poles : warmer poles = smaller delta T with tropics = less energy to drive the jetstream. On a sidetrack : Neven, how is your house getting along?

@Nirmalkumar : your CAPS-lock was stuck, and I doubt if the electric car will save the world, anyhow: Toyota is clearly on the way of further electrifying the world car fleet, one mile at a time. "Toyota has stepped up its research, development and production capacity of both NiMH and Li-ion batteries" That is interesting, because in 2015 the patent rights owned by Chevron on NiMh-plugin batteries are finally no longer valid. Toyota can than finally deliver every Prius with a Plug, as they had always planned to do. If Toyota implements induction charging very well it may set the standard for his in the industry, and maybe we will see traffic light fast charging introduced.

Can't help but find the Greenland ice movements during the last week nothing less than spectaculair: http://youtu.be/PZDSMe1zHbA

Van harte Neven, meer dan verdiend!

Does anybody know if Newtons Laws of Motion also apply to Ice Sheets? If the whole Ice Sheet gains momentum, top to bottom, wow, what is going to bring that to a halt?

And another close up of Big Berg 2013, using the AMSR2 images: http://youtu.be/rxAwoJTYW64

P-maker, I knew immidiatly what you meant, without even opening the link. The feature is clearly visible in the fullres video on Youtube (somehow the video doesn't show full res when linked to in a website, I encourage you to view it there, it's quiet beautifull). I've been tracking it for a couple of days now and wondered why it didn't get any attention. It seems to be moving only east at the moment, little southern movement.

Anybody care to share his/her thoughts on what happened in Greenland today? It's been WAY too cold for weeks, and today BOOM: http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/

Downpuppy : ah, that's just me then :-) Thanks for the link

I agree with David, is measuring a sea ice extend of 1-2 meter thick ice the same as measuring the extent of floating wett snowballs. I think we may have been fooled by the unusually cold (and cloudy?) June and may be surprised by "what comes next". On a side track, is it is just me or is the hurricane season refusing to start this year. Might this be related to the slowing of the jet stream that causes all these wierd temperature records in Californa, Alaska and northern Canada?

Christoffer, WeatherPro currently has Kugluktuk at 32C with a heat warning, smashing the old record by 7.7 degrees. MSM isn't picking it up, they seem more interested in California having a hot weekend. I think this is major (post) tipping point stuff!

Are there any signs of these kind of devices using liquid alcohol (or even Petrol) as source of hydrogen, in stead of using Hydrogen Gas? That would make a device like this (@20 kW) the ultimate "range extender" in otherwise battery powered cars.

I wonder what the car would be like if they dropped the 4.6L/453kW/V8 fossilfuelburner with that rediculous exhaust configuration (breathing hight exhaust, I hope it fails roadsafety tests). If all that dino-stuf gets dumped there is still 200+kW of electrical power + a truckload of space for batteries. That would make a pretty nifty sportscar.