The Beaufort gyre compared with 2016. Reduced block size is apparent. The closeness of the main pack is another difference.
Needs a click to start.
Kind of forgot how bad the Beaufort looked last year. By comparison, it is much stronger this year. Maybe we can dodge the bullet after all.
i'll use every opportunity to repeat that even though extent is higher this year, volume is lower and the total amount of ice to be melted ( energy needed to achieve that ) is significantly lower than last year. i forgot where it was but someone just posted an image to illustrate how fast the ice is going for good once the melting has started in serious.
i often used the example but will gladly repeat:
a frozen lake with 90% ice coverage can get ice free overnight once the ice is very thin while a lake with 50% ice cover but the ice is let's says 10-20cm thick, will take a few days in any other case than a foen-storm or similar wind/warmth events.
we shall all face a sudden death of extent ins SOME areas, mostly depending on weather and wind patterns, where what happens we cannot predict, so it's even possible that the beaufort gets spared but then the opposing melting friendly weather would find place in another corner of the arctic which at the end of the season will produce similar results.
only thing that can make this season better than expected/feared would be a total lack of autumn stroms and/or other extreme ice-conserving weather.
let's see, just what caught my eyes once again is the widely spread error to take greater extent as an equivalent to healthier and/or more ice mass. IMO not true anymore starting late 2015