An observation and a question for those who may know the answer. Observation. It looks to me like the North Pole camera (2) is showing a big lead in the background. All the ponds seem to have frozen over and some snow has fallen, but there is a big expanse of water. Is this the flow that the cameras are on getting close to the pack edge? Also The cameras have drifted around 7 degrees from when they were set up. The Iceland, Svalbard,Nova Zelmnya edge of the pack has only slightly retreated from the start of summer, while the Canada, Alaska edge has simply gone. Is this an indication that much of that Canada, Alaska side drifts off towards Iceland with the leading edge melting during the summer? Is the gulf stream melting the front edge the bigger driver in ice loss, or is it more down to melting on the Canada, Alaska side?

Oh and by the way Neven, excellent site I am slowly developing a basic understanding of the subject from what I read here and enjoying the process. Keep up the good work.

OK been following this site for a year or so and I thought I'd check this guy out as he couldn't really be that bad could he? It was an interesting site and I think I may be developing an understanding of the American phrase "batshit crazy" The idea that I was particularly taken with was that because a radio mast on the Greenland ice has been buried in ice over the last 40 years it shows that the ice is growing in Greenland. LOL. As a small child I used to make a pile of sand on the path by the sandpit and put a toy car on the top, I would then take sand from around the edge and add it back to the top, the pile never got any higher but the car got buried anyway. Same principal but he totally ignores the fact that the ice is disappearing from the bottom faster than it's added to the top in Greenland.

Not quite a record for the UK as well, but the news is highly indicative. "All bar one of the top 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997 and all the UK's top seven warmest years happened in the past decade." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16366078 Sadly the comments in response have included far to high a number of people who either don't care or refuse to believe it is a problem.

Quite a large negative on the Antarctic sea ice as well at the moment taking the global value well past the -2M level. Perhaps an early end to the winter freeze in the southern ocean?