Update on Recent Ice Extent

I started the blog off talking about the record low sea-ice extents seen in the Arctic in recent decades, showing a graph of this years data against 'record low' years. It was clear that 2011 experienced the second lowest ice extent in the satellite record, just beaten by the record-breaking 2007 year with it's unusual weather patterns. As discussed, 2011 did not experience 'unusual' weather as in 2007 around the Arctic, making the almost record concerning. I know you haven't been able to sleep since because of it, so I thought I'd give an update as has been recently published.

http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20111102_Figure2.png

The good news is that the ice extent rapidly increased during the end of October, meaning it hasn't yet been lower than 2007. Despite this, it's still far lower than the 1979-2000 average, including 2 standard deviations. 'Record low' years for each decade are also shown, 1984 and 1999, which were lower than the average but nothing compared to the last few years. Just to illustrate the difference, the UK has an area of 243,610 Km squared, meaning the difference between 2011 and 1999 ice extent at the end of October is about 5-6 times the size of the UK. It's also about the same size as 1 Mongolia, 75 Wales(s), 9,375 Liechtensteins and 3,000,000 Vatican Citys (don't say I don't help you out).

To keep up to date and save you those sleepless nights you can keep checking for updates on sea-ice extent here.