The Arctic continues to print us – for all the unseasonable reasons . Just before Christmas , another surge of wintertime warmth blanketed the region , an unwished end to an already crazy year .
A week before the holiday , Arctictemperaturesrose 16.7 to 27.7 ° snow ( 30 to 50 ° F ) above average . The ice , in turn , melted to an all - time low in seven of the 11 months on phonograph recording .
All this matter . As scientists carry on to tell us : What happens in the Arctic , does not abide in the Arctic . Changes there result in a shower of moment around the earth .
" We ’ve seen a year in 2016 in the Arctic like we ’ve never seen before,“saidJeremy Mathis , theatre director of NOAA ’s Arctic research program . The diametric region show " a stronger , more marked sign of persistent thaw than any other class in our watching platter . "
In fact , the Arctic is warming twice as tight as the repose of the planet . The North Pole and much of the surrounding ocean will soon be ice - destitute in the summer for the first time in thou of years . In less than 25 years , human will possibly be able tosailacross the Arctic in summertime .
" The disk are dumfounding because there are so many of them , " enunciate Jennifer Francis in an interview withScientific American . " The additional warming that is happening up in the Arctic – the ' Arctic gain ' – has been the swell we ’ve ever seen . "
In a bon voyage to 2016 , here ’s ahighlight reelof the madness that went on in the Arctic .
A regretful start
First and foremost , the year began on a downhearted note : January ocean ice extent was the lowest on satellite record , with some regions warming an unbelievable 8 ° snow ( 14 ° F ) above norm .
Double trouble
The Arctic warmed twice as tight as the rest of the planet , gain 3.5 ° vitamin C ( 6.3 ° farad ) above norm since 1900 .
An early thaw
The Greenland deoxyephedrine sheet began melt much too early on – the 2d early in the 37 - year observational phonograph record .
Winter is coming … or so we thought
November gain an unbelievable 20 ° C ( 36 ° F ) above normal . In fact , in the middle of the month , ice extent actually decreased for several days .
MAYbe it gets worse
May snow screen came in at a record first gear since satellite observations began , with less than 4 million square kilometers ( 1.5 million hearty miles ) . This allowed more sunshine to hand the upper bed of the ocean , get far-flung algae blooms .
drop away away
Arctic sea ice extent was the humbled on orbiter record from mid - October 2016 to late November 2016 , with 28 percent less than the average for October .
Warming waters
ocean aerofoil temperatures in August reach 5 ° C ( 9 ° fluorine ) warmer than the 1982 - 2010 August mean in the Barents and Chukchi seas , as well as off the east and west coast of Greenland .
Setting phonograph record … again and again
Seven out of the 12 calendar month reached an all - meter record low for sea ice cover . The winner of this unfortunate honour go to January , February , April , May , June , October , and November .
The above fact are from theArctic Report Card 2016 , a peer - reviewed news report in its 11th yr that bring together 61 scientists from 11 nations .
" The 2016 Arctic Report Card further documents the unraveling of the Arctic and the crumbling of the pillars of the global climate system that the Arctic maintains , ” said Rafe Pomerance , chair of the group Arctic 21 and Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences , in astatement .
So maybe next time you come across a climate change denier , show these facts to them . If they ’re not an auditory learner , perhaps show them this video .
Or this animation byNASAof carbon dioxide propel through the atmosphere :
Or these images by National Geographic :
