Despite 'Unremarkable' Temps, More Ice Melt Woes

Records set throughout the Arctic
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 6, 2012 10:50 AM CST
Despite 'Unremarkable' Temps, More Ice Melt Woes
This climate map shows how temperatures around the Arctic have increased in the past decade compared to the 30 years prior.   (NOAA: http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/image/2012/arctic-temperature-patterns-2012-and-2001-2011)

Despite "unremarkable" temperatures across the Arctic over the past year, melting around the region continues to set records, reports LiveScience. Among the findings of the latest Arctic Report Card released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association yesterday (its largest such report since starting them in 2006):

  • Snow coverage in the northern hemisphere hit an all-time low in June.

  • Sea ice reached an all-time low in September.
  • The Greenland ice sheet set a new melting record, with 97% of it registering as melting on a day in July (the country saw its warmest summer in 170 years).
"What happens in the Arctic doesn't always stay in the Arctic. We're seeing Arctic changes in the ocean and the atmosphere that affect weather patterns elsewhere," said a NOAA official. You can read the full NOAA report here, or click for more on polar ice sheet woes. (More NOAA stories.)

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