Antarctic melting

It could simply be a factor of where the water has fallen and how it drains into the reservoirs.

 

Replying to coast cruiser .Agreed CO2 has nothing to do with nonexistent California drought.
How is the ice chunk caused by cO2?
Lets here some fairy tails?

 

Looks like a lot of ice is floating away: Sea Ice Concentration

Bob Wilson

 

That's percentage of 100% is what's normal for the of year.Many res are above normal and are being drained In anticipation of the spring melt.Which will be huge this spring with a much higher than normal snowpack.

 

"Full" when referring to CA res means level is at the average for date.Reservoirs are never allowed at 100% capacity.

 

Source: Oroville Dam energency spillway in use for first time in dam history | The Sacramento Bee

Impressive water flows but my understanding is the dam itself is not at risk. That hasn't always been the case as some earth-filled dams have collapsed in the past. I'm thinking of the Baldwin Hills Dam.

Bob Wilson

 

Well in addition to setting more high temperature records, a new word "bombogenesis".

Source: link

Apparently it takes a polar air mass on land meeting a huge slug of tropical moisture. Hummm, where did all that moisture come from?

Bob Wilson

 

More weather, not climate, just ordinary weather news: Once-in-a-decade heatwave melting the Arctic ... for the third time this year. Why? - CSMonitor.com

First, the facts. January sea ice area has never been so small. In November, the coverage fell short of average by an area the size of the eastern half of the United States. Northeast Greenland had its warmest February day ever (by almost four degrees). The current heat wave brought Friday’s temperatures near the North Pole to 50 degrees above average, which is like New York City having a January day in the mid-80s.

This kind of unprecedented weather leaves even seasoned researchers scratching their heads.

“We’re still trying to figure out what is happening here,” Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist with the Colorado-based Snow and Ice Data Center, told KUAC. “The sea ice is so low there in part because it’s just been so darn warm in the Arctic this winter.”

Of course, there’s a huge difference between weather and climate. The Earth is a vast and chaotic system, and heat waves as well as cold snaps can happen anywhere. But how often they take place can give insight into general patterns.​

Hummm, curious and then there is this slug of arctic air headed to the NorthEast instead of the Arctic circle.

Bob Wilson

 

As of 7:00 AM AKST this morning (2/12/2017), the temp at Fairbanks, AK, airport was -38 F (-39 C). So it looks like there's pretty cold air there also.

I've also been keeping occasional track of a buoy (Buoy 48282) well north of the Alaska north slope in the Arctic Sea that's consistently been around -30 F since I've been keeping track (few months now).

Maybe there's a unusually amplified flow over the northern polar region this winter?

 

There was:
Massive hurricane-force Atlantic storm to push abnormally mild air toward North Pole

My understanding is this pumped a lot warm moist air towards the Arctic circle and may have helped reduce the sea ice freeze-up.

Bob Wilson

 

It is currently (10:00 AM AKST) -51 F (-46 C) at site PFYU in Eastern Alaska!

CWSU National TAF METAR maps - NOAA NWS

 

Sorry, it seems this version of PriusChat 'eats' URLs. It was the Atlantic side, east of Greenland that had an impressive low pumping warm air up.

Bob Wilson

 

It looks like cold air is pooling on this side of the north pole. The apparent high amplitude upper flow is causing surface cold air mass to be displaced on this side of the pole.

 

Sounds like we may have a late hard freeze to kill the peaches.

Bob Wilson