By Paul Homewood
NOAA’s Zachary Labe has updated the Antarctic sea ice data for September.
As the first chart shows, sea ice extent is still the lowest on record:
But the ice is much thicket then normal in places, particularly around the Peninsula:
As a result the volume is not a record low. At the time of year, the volume was actually lower in three years during the early 1980s
You will recall that when the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) goes negative, as it has been for most of this year, northerly winds tend to push polewards, both bringing milder air which melts the ice, and also pushing ice south, thus making it thicker:
https://niwa.co.nz/climate/information-and-resources/southern-annular-mode
The SAM was also strongly negative between 1980 and 1983, and as a consequence sea ice extent and volume were also much lower than average:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/aao/month_aao_index.shtml
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
October 22, 2023 at 11:03AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 