While we are experiencing a very -AO to maybe record setting. And have experienced in the past.
Unlike the past multiple factors have come together to show a glimpse of the horrible damage we are doing to our planet.
The Sun has yet to reach the North Pole and parts of Greenland are on fire.
Surface temps in the low to mid 50's along parts of the South Western Greenland coast is shattering records and is just plain absurd.
First of all SST's in the NW Atlantic are way above normal. So air-masses being pulled North into Greenland are warmer and higher in dew point that normal. Probably near modern extremes for this time of year.
http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?mosaic=Arctic.2013076.terra.1kmthe link will lead you to the horror show.
Snow is melting off the land and ice edges. Essentially the snow left in spots on the ice is either none or very wet or not very deep. If the land snow is vanishing the ice next to it can't have much deeper snow.
Now does this add a lot to the land ice loss now?
No. But it's not likely a lot of snow is gonna fall between now and May. This could leave this region of Greenland just jumping into the melt season with no protective cover and no land snow to help moderate temps at all.
On top of that SST's are starting out well above normal.
Next we see Sea level's have risen quite dramatically. I hate to break it to the crowd that is trying to sell that Antarctica is not losing land ice but thermal expansion has slowed to a crawl the last 7 years. I doubt Greenland and the worlds other land ice deposits can do this all alone.
We also know ENSO variation is not to blame.
The torch is expected for 2-3 more days but Greenland doesn't exactly go into the deep freeze anytime soon. At least not the melt areas.
OH PS. ANTARCTICA IS ALSO TORCHING. BIG TIME.
