With old reports that the Arctic this wintertime has been unsettlingly warm , with some neighborhood experiencingtemperatures20 ° C ( 36 ° fluorine ) hotter than they should be at this time of the year , it is perhaps unsurprising that the deoxyephedrine extent for the Arctic this November was thelowest on disk .
But now it seems that it ’s not only the northerly Hemisphere that is feel an unusually balmy period , as Antarctic sea ice is likewise struggling to shape . “ Antarctic sea ice really went down the rabbit hole this time , ” suppose Ted Scambos , precede scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center , in astatement . “ There are a few things we can say about what come about , but we need to look deep . ”
Even though Antarctic sea ice extent has typically increased over the last few tenner due chiefly to shifting currents and idle words patterns , November this yeartruly tear the trend . The ice surrounding the continent decline acutely last month , with the average extent 1.81 million square kilometer ( 699,000 square miles ) down than the 1981 to 2010 average . That ’s an area of sea water ice roughly the same size as Libya .
National Snow and Ice Data Center
While it is technically summer in the Southern Hemisphere , the tune temperatures over some parting of the Antarctic continent have been 2 - 4 ° C ( 4 - 7 ° farad ) warmer than average for this time of the year . Coupled with an early pattern of strong western farting , the sea ice rink pack surrounding the continent has become even more dispersed . There have also been large areas of water within the ocean Methedrine opening up , which has quash the overall extent of the ice .
“ The Arctic has typically been where the most interest rest , but this calendar month , the Antarctic has flipped the script and it is southern ocean ice that is surprising us,”saysNASA scientist Walt Meier . But that does n’t signify you should n’t be disturbed about the Arctic , as the disc from this month show that while the sea glass extent should be growing as it enters wintertime , there was a period last month when it actually decreased , something that is deeply disturbing .
With both the northerly and Southern Hemisphere warm at unprecedented levels , no one really know what to bear . Hopefully , the ice in the North will set off expand again throughout the wintertime months , but the long - term wallop on the Arctic and Antarctic are basically obscure .
