Arctic Report Card
Via NPR on the Arctic:
The Arctic has experienced the “most unprecedented transition in history” in terms of warming temperatures and melting ice, and those changes may be the cause of extreme weather around the globe, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2018 Arctic Report Card.
The annual report released Tuesday says rapid warming over the past three decades has led to a 95 percent decline of the Arctic’s oldest and thickest ice. This research comes as world leaders convene at the U.N. climate summit in Poland this week where they are debating whether to embrace the findings of an October report by the International Panel on Climate Change.
The melting of sea ice is one of the most conspicuous examples of climate change in the Arctic, and scientists say it may be the catalyst for extreme environmental events across the world.
According to NOAA, the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the globe, which is melting some of the region’s oldest ice.
This is why the jet stream is unstable. This is why it is hot one day and record cold the next. Those weird kinks in the jet that pulls frigid air down into the Northeast a day after it was in the 60’s. The arctic ice used to keep the jet on a rather consistent West to East flow below that dense cold air. Remove the cap and all hell breaks loose. But you will never convince an idiot that record cold is a consequence of warming. So we are screwed.