<div dir="ltr"><div>Some of the "ice out" locations discussed below might not technically be in the "Arctic" (but close anyway), though this can be defined at least three ways:</div><div><a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/arctic.html">https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/arctic.html</a> </div><div><a href="https://nsidc.org/sites/nsidc.org/files/images//arctic_map.gif">https://nsidc.org/sites/nsidc.org/files/images//arctic_map.gif</a>  <br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 1:58 AM Ted Moffett <<a href="mailto:starbliss@gmail.com">starbliss@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><h2 style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0px;margin:0.5em 0px 0.25em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.714em;line-height:1.15em;font-family:Cabin,"Trebuchet MS","Gill Sans","Gill Sans MT",Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">Winter outlook 2018-2019: How’d we do?<br></h2></div><div><a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/winter-outlook-2018-2019-how%E2%80%99d-we-do" target="_blank">https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/winter-outlook-2018-2019-how%E2%80%99d-we-do</a>    <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px">"...in February, the western half of the country was transported to the ice planet Hoth. A huge area across the Northern Plains stretching into the Pacific Northwest observed temperatures more than 11°F below average for the month.  </span><a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/us-maps/1/201902?products%5b%5d=statewidetavgrank#us-maps-select" id="gmail-m_-4100205480591835492gmail-m_1000718697082162184gmail-anch_42" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:14px;line-height:inherit;text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">February 2019</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px"> became the second-coldest February since 1895 in Montana and North Dakota, the third-coldest in South Dakota, and the fifth-coldest in Washington."</span>   <br></div><div>----------------------------</div><div>Given the cold very snowy February 2019 the Palouse witnessed, as discussed above at <a href="http://climate.gov" target="_blank">climate.gov</a>, it is rather incredible, though not really surprising, with the well established global warming trend of polar amplification, that the Arctic during Feb. and since has had warm temperatures and records for early ice out dates, and low total sea ice extent, as revealed by the credible sources below:</div><div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div><div>-----------------------------</div>Realclimate.org features an article from Goddard Institute for Space Studies director Gavin Schmidt, regarding the record "ice out" event in the Arctic this Spring 2019:<div><h3 class="gmail-m_-4100205480591835492gmail-storytitle" id="gmail-m_-4100205480591835492gmail-post-22403" style="border-bottom:1px dotted rgb(238,238,238);font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Nenana Ice Classic 2019</h3></div><div><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2019/04/nenana-ice-classic-2019/#comments" target="_blank">http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2019/04/nenana-ice-classic-2019/#comments</a>  <br></div><div><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">"Perhaps unsurprisingly given the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/09/climate/alaska-abnormally-hot-march.html?smid=tw-share" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)" target="_blank">exceptional (relative) warmth</a> in Alaska last month and in February, the record for the <a href="http://nenanaakiceclassic.com/" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)" target="_blank">Nenana Ice Classic</a> was shattered this year.</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">The previous official record was associated with the <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1256/wea.248.04" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)" target="_blank">exceptional conditions</a> in El Niño-affected winter of 1939-1940, when the ice went out on April 20th 1940. Though since 1940 was a leap year, that was actually a little later (relative to the vernal equinox) than the ice out date in 1998 (which wasn’t a leap year). </p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">Other records are also tumbling in the region, for instance the ice out data at Bethel, Alaska."</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">--------------------------------</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">NSIDC Arctic sea ice extent early April was tracking at a record low, though the March sea ice extent average was only the seventh lowest on record:</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px"><a href="https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/" target="_blank">https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/</a> </p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px"><span style="color:rgb(55,55,55);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px">"Arctic sea ice extent appears to have reached its maximum extent on March 13, marking the beginning of the sea ice melt season. Since the maximum, sea ice extent has been tracking at record low levels."</span>  <br></p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">------------------</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px"><span style="color:rgb(55,55,55);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px">"Arctic sea ice extent for March averaged 14.55 million square kilometers (5.62 million square miles), tying with 2011 for the seventh lowest extent in the 40-year satellite record."</span>  <br></p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px">------------------</p><p style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px">"These late-March sea ice extent losses in the Bering Sea accelerated the decline of total Arctic sea ice extent. By April 1, Arctic extent was at a record low for that date.</span> " <br></p></div></div>
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