The Arctic continues to impress us – for all the wrong reasons. Just before Christmas, another surge of winter warmth blanketed the region, an unwelcome end to an already crazy year.
A week before the holidays, Arctic temperatures rose 16.7 to 27.7°C (30 to 50°F) above average. The ice, in turn, melted to an all-time low in seven of the 11 months on record.
All this matters. As scientists continue to tell us: What happens in the Arctic, does not stay in the Arctic. Changes there result in a cascade of consequences around the globe.
"We've seen a year in 2016 in the Arctic like we've never seen before," said Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic research program. The polar region showed "a stronger, more pronounced signal of persistent warming than any other year in our observation record."
In fact, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. The North Pole and much of the surrounding ocean will soon be ice-free in the summer for the first time in thousands of years. In less than 25 years, human will possibly be able to sail across the Arctic in summer.
"The records are astounding because there are so many of them," said Jennifer Francis in an interview with Scientific American. "The extra warming that is happening up in the Arctic – the 'Arctic amplification' – has been the greatest we’ve ever seen."
In a bon voyage to 2016, here’s a highlight reel of the madness that went on in the Arctic.
A bad start
First and foremost, the year began on a low note: January sea ice extent was the lowest on satellite record, with some regions warming an incredible 8°C (14°F) above average.
Double trouble
The Arctic warmed twice as fast as the rest of the planet, reaching 3.5°C (6.3°F) above average since 1900.
An early melt
The Greenland ice sheet began melting much too early – the second earliest in the 37-year observational record.
Winter is coming… or so we thought
November reached an incredible 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 cover came in at a record low since satellite observations began, with less than 4 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles). This allowed more sunlight to reach the upper layers of the ocean, stimulating widespread algae blooms.
Slipping away
Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on satellite record from mid-October 2016 to late November 2016, with 28 percent less than the average for October.
Warming waters
Sea surface temperatures in August reached 5°C (9°F) warmer than the 1982-2010 August mean in the Barents and Chukchi seas, as well as off the east and west coasts of Greenland.
Setting records… again and again
Seven out of the 12 months reached an all-time record low for sea ice cover. The winners of this unfortunate honor go to January, February, April, May, June, October, and November.
The above facts are from the Arctic Report Card 2016, a peer-reviewed report in its 11th year that brought 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 a statement.
So maybe next time you meet a climate change denier, show these facts to them. If they’re not an auditory learner, perhaps show them this video.
Or this animation by NASA of carbon dioxide moving through the atmosphere:
Or these images by National Geographic:
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