Tag Archives: Cyclone

Facts About the Arctic in May 2026

May 19, 2026NewsAWI, Beaufort Sea, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, CMC, Cyclone, East Siberian Sea, ERA5, Extent, JAXA, Laptev Sea, Mackenzie River, MSLP, Nares Strait, NSIDC, Temperature, Vilkitsky StraitJim Hunt

JAXA have updated their visualisations of Arctic sea ice extent data. The “traditional” 2 day average graph is now labelled “preliminary”, and currently shows 2026 in a tie with 2020 for third lowest for the date:

5 day averaged “confirmed” data is also available, including regional graphs. By way of example here’s JAXA’s latest extent graph for the Bering Sea, dated May 15th:

The Alfred Wegener Institute’s sea ice concentration data reveals open water in the Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian and Laptev Seas:

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Facts About the Arctic in February 2025

February 2, 2025NewsAndrew Cotton, CryoSat-2, Cyclone, Extent, GWCABBWSC, JAXA, MSLP, North Pole, PIOMAS, Red Bull, SMOS, Svalbard, Temperature, Volume, WavesJim Hunt

This isn’t exactly “shock news”, since we (slightly hesitantly!) predicted this 5 days ago.

A GFS 2 meter temperature chart revealing greater than zero degrees Celsius at the North Pole later today:

The 2 meter temperature anomaly at the Pole is almost off the charts:

Plus the cause of these unusual numbers, a cyclone with central pressure of 959 hPa spinning north of Ellesmere Island at 18:00 UTC this evening:

All of which has led to the JAXA/Vishop Arctic sea ice extent being the lowest for the date since 1979 at least by a significant margin:

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Facts About the Arctic in November 2024

November 3, 2024NewsAge, AWI, Barents Observer, CryoSat-2, Cyclone, DMI, Extent, Fram Strait, GFS, JAXA, MSLP, New Siberian Islands, Nome, Northern Fleet, NSIDC, NSR, Oleg Golubyev, PIOMAS, Sibir, SMOS, Temperature, Thickness, Utqiaġvik, Volume, Wrangel IslandJim Hunt

The Laptev and East Siberian Seas have now refrozen. Consequently Arctic sea ice extent is now increasing more slowly, and JAXA/ViSHOP extent is 3rd lowest for the date in the satellite era:

Introducing the third dimension, here’s the PIOMAS gridded thickness data for the end of October 2024:

Note the change in scale from previous months, to allow for easier comparison with the “near real time” CryoSat-2/SMOS merged thickness data from the Alfred Wegener Institute:

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Facts About the Arctic in October 2024

October 5, 2024NewsAARI, AMSR2, AWI, CAA, Chukchi Sea, CIS, CMC, Cyclone, East Siberian Sea, Extent, Fram Strait, Greenland Sea, Hui Da 9, Kara Sea, NSR, PIOMAS, Smoke, ThicknessJim Hunt

The JAXA extent graph is currently not updating, so let’s begin this month with the latest AMSR2 sea ice concentration map from the Alfred Wegener Institute. Click the image to see a ~10 Mb animation of the last four weeks:

Note in particular the restart of export into the East Greenland Sea via the Fram Strait:

and the movement of ice within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago:

The PIOMAS gridded thickness data for September 2024 has been released:

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Facts About the Arctic in August 2024

August 4, 2024NewsAWI, Concentration, Cyclone, DMI, Environment Canada, Extent, GFS, JAXA, MODIS, MSLP, Nares Strait, NSIDC, Oden, PIOMAS, Rain, Thickness, Victoria Fjord, VolumeJim Hunt

At the beginning of August JAXA/ViSHOP extent is 3rd lowest for the date in the satellite era:

In 2012 extent had just started its unprecedented plunge towards the record September minimum, and 2024 seems certain to cross above the 2012 curve shortly. However, the latest AMSR2 sea ice concentration map from the Alfred Wegener Institute reveals areas of open water across the majority of the Central Arctic Basin:

In particular the sea ice between the North Pole and northern Greenland is remarkably fragmented:

*“False colour” image of the North Pole on August 3rd from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite*

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Facts About the Arctic in February 2024

February 2, 2024NewsAMSR2, Area, AWI, Barents Sea, Bering Sea, CAA, Cyclone, Extent, Fram Strait, GFS, JAXA, MODIS, MSLP, NSIDC, Odden Ice Tongue, PIOMAS, Ron Clutz, Snow Cover, Storm Ingunn, Temperature, Terra, Thickness, Vilkitsky Strait, Volume, WavesJim Hunt

A change is perhaps even better than a rest? Let’s start February with a reminder that following close behind another recent Arctic cyclone, Storm Ingunn caused red weather warnings for high winds and avalanches in Norway two days ago:

By yesterday evening another long period, storm driven swell was arriving at the sea ice edge in the Fram Strait, and to a lesser extent in the Barents Sea:

By this morning Ingunn had merged with the remnants of the prior cyclone, as revealed in Climate Reanalyzer’s visualisation of the latest GFS model run::

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Facts About the Arctic in September 2023

September 1, 2023NewsCMC, Cyclone, Extent, JAXA, MSLP, NSIDC, SIPNJim Hunt

There’s lots of coverage specifically about assorted Arctic sea ice extent metrics over on the “2023 Minimum Extent” thread. However we’ll start the September open thread ball rolling with a couple of cross posted images.

At the end of August JAXA daily extent was 7th lowest for the date, at 4.49 million km² :

The median prediction of the contributors to the August call by the Sea Ice Prediction Network for the September monthly average extent is 4.6 million km² :

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Facts About the Arctic in May 2023

May 3, 2023NewsAMSR2, Anne Sledd, Area, Art of Melt 2023, AWI, CAA, Chaunskaya Bay, Chukchi Sea, Cloud Feedback, Coronation Gulf, Cyclone, Dempster Highway, Extent, Fires, Fort McPherson, Fram Strait, Greenland Sea, IMB 651330, IMB Buoys, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Lena River, Mackenzie River, MIZ, Oden, Peel River, Pevek, SMOS, Svalbard, TsiigehtchicJim Hunt

At the beginning of May AWI’s high resolution AMSR2 extent metric is at the top of the historical range:

After a period of melt in the East Greenland Sea, export of sea ice from the Central Arctic via the Fram Strait has increased recently:

Sea ice area in the Barents Sea peaked in the first week of April and has declined steadily since then:

SMOS data is flowing again, and the gaps have been filled. Here’s the final pre melt ponding map of the spring:

It reveals large areas of thin ice that have recently developed in the Kara Sea. Here’s a pseudo colour glimpse of the region through the clouds:

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Facts About the Arctic in February 2023

February 3, 2023NewsAMSR2, Area, ASIF, AWI, CryoSat-2, Cyclone, Extent, Fram Strait, JAXA, Maximum, Minimum, MSLP, NSIDC, PIOMAS, SMOS, Snow Cover, Thickness, VolumeJim Hunt

A new month has arrived, and during January several Arctic sea ice metrics have been drifting towards the bottom of their respective decadal ranges. To begin with here is AWI’s high resolution AMSR2 extent graph, which is currently very close to being lowest for the date in the AMSR2 record:

However that is less the case for area:

Taylor is keen to see the PIOMAS volume data for January, but whilst we wait for the latest Polar Science Center update here is the CryoSat-2/SMOS volume graph, which now includes a couple of month’s worth of reanalysed results as well as more recent near real time numbers:

Here too is the start of month CS2/SMOS thickness map:

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Facts About the Arctic in October 2022

October 2, 2022NewsAdvection, AMSR2, Area, AWI, CMC, Concentration, CryoSat-2, Cyclone, Extent, GFS Wave, MSLP, PIOMAS, SMOS, Thickness, Volume, WavesJim Hunt

The 2022/23 freezing season has begun, so to begin with here are Arctic sea ice area and extent during its early stages:

Both metrics are currently tracking 2021 quite closely.

Here too is an AMSR2 animation of the transition from melting to freezing in the Central Arctic. Click to animate, and be warned that the file size is almost 10 Mb:

[Edit – October 4th]

Another big storm is heading for the Chukchi Sea. The GFS forecast currently shows a sub 960 hPa low developing on Thursday:

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The Great White Con

Putting the Arctic sea ice record straight

Tag Archives: Cyclone

Facts About the Arctic in May 2026

Facts About the Arctic in February 2025

Facts About the Arctic in November 2024

Facts About the Arctic in October 2024

Facts About the Arctic in August 2024

Facts About the Arctic in February 2024

Facts About the Arctic in September 2023

Facts About the Arctic in February 2023

Facts About the Arctic in October 2022