One way to look at 2016 is this: We have burned through 3.15 million square kilometers of ice so far this year. What is the amount of ice that we had burned through in 2012 (from peak ice that year to this date)?
I can "kind of eyeball" it on a chart....and it looks like we have burned through more ice (maybe about 500,000 more 2K). But Jim....if you DO have the numbers.....I would be curious to know: The absolute square kilometers burned through for 2012 from peak to May 25th of that year.
We know that 2016 is 1.054 million square kilometers below 2012.....but 2012 started at a much higher winter maximum (eyeballing it.....maybe 500,000 above the 2016 maximum).
Certainly. If my early morning math is correct:
2012 extent topped out at 14,709,086 km2 on 7 March
2016 extent topped out at 13,942,507 km2 on 29 February
Difference: 766,579 km2
On May 25, 2012, SIE stood at 11,797,276 km2, a loss from maximum of 2,911,810 km2, or 36,858 km2 per day.
On May 25, 2016, SIE stands at 10,704,953 km2, a loss from maximum of 3,237,554 km2, or 37,646 km2 per day.
So: very similar loss per day numbers, with the slight edge to 2016. Which doesn't sound too astounding until one considers that 2012 likely had more "easy" ice to lose in the first place.
FWIW, 2012 hit its first (and perhaps steepest) "cliff" on 5 June; that kicked off a ten-day spree of decrease that averaged 119k per day, and included seven consecutive century drops. It'll be interesting to see, then, how much of the current 2012-2016 spread disappears over the next three weeks. Some? Most? All?
