The rate of ice growth (click here) for the first half of November 2015 was quite rapid, but the pace of ice growth slowed during the second half of the month, only to increase again at the end of the month. Throughout the month, sea ice extent remained within two standard deviations of the 1981 to 2010 average....
Growth in sea ice is more attributed to warmer temperatures at work with resultant formations less than solid ice. The variations in November 2015 may be connected to waxing and waning temperature events over the North American and Northern Asia continents. There were extended frigid temperatures in Siberia. The release of frigid temperatures from the Arctic Ocean due to warmer ocean waters explains the decrease in air masses temperatures that descended to lower latitudes.
December 30, 2015
By Roginson Meyer
The sun (click here) has not risen above the North Pole since mid-September. The sea ice — flat, landlike, windswept, and stretching as far as the eye can see—has been bathed in darkness for months.
But later this week, something extraordinary will happen: Air temperatures at the Earth’s most northernly region, in the middle of winter, will rise above freezing for only the second time on record.
On Wednesday, the same storm system that last week spun up deadly tornadoes in the American southeast will burst into the far north, centering over Iceland. It will bring strong winds and pressure as low as is typically seen during hurricanes.
That low pressure will suck air out of the planet’s middle latitudes and send it rushing to the Arctic. And so on Wednesday, the North Pole will likely see temperatures of about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius. That’s 50 degrees hotter than average: It’s usually 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero there at this time of year....
