Meanwhile . . .

[hatrack]

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

[GliderGuider]

1. Lookadat! The NWP is indisputably open.

Here's what happened over the last 5 days:


Now we wait for a couple more days and see what emerges from the Big Polar Blow.

[XemaSab]

3. I told you

It's Polar Storm John Galt.

(I think next year's might just have that same name too.)

[happyslug]

2. GREAT NEWS both the Northwest and Northeast passages are open!!!!! Direct shipping from China!!!!

I try to look for the Silver lining in every cloud.

[hatrack]

4. Kicking for update through 8/12 . . . Ho-lee shit

nt

[truebrit71]

5. Okay, can someone breakdown what the red area represents?

When it says 'concentration' is that solid thick ice, solid thin ice, or a slushy mix?

[phantom power]

7. red is ~60% - "slush"

[truebrit71]

8. That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure...

...yikes...

[hatrack]

6. Blub blub blub kick

nt

[pscot]

9. That's a shock

I sucks to be us.

[hatrack]

10. Interesting - note the embayed green soft spot north of Semernaya Zemlya

That's, what, 83 or 84 north?

If that's turning to mush, I'd be inclined to write off that whole complex of three big spurs between it and eastern Arctic Siberia before the seasonal turn.

[phantom power]

11. I still think anything that's not purple is on the table

I guess this late in the season losing it all is unlikely. But still. Halfsies!

[XemaSab]

14. I've been watching that area for a while

I think the demise of that ice is going to be the grand finale.

[hatrack]

12. Blub . . . blub . . . blub . . .

I'd give the remaining little ice fragments in the E. Siberian Sea until Saturday - maybe Sunday at the outside.

Interesting times.

[hatrack]

13. Note the circular area with the little white dot in the middle

That little white dot is the North Pole.

Interesting.

[joshcryer]

15. I wonder who will be the first to do a north/south circumnavigation of the planet.

A real possibility very soon now.

[hatrack]

16. 9/2 update - area near Semernaya Zemlya coming unstitched fast

Much faster than I'd expected, and I wasn't exactly Otto the Optimist.

[XemaSab]

17. .

[hunter]

18. That's... Just... Not... Right.

Welcome to the 21st century. Things are different here.

[Odin2005]

19. We are nearing minimum, and it is looking bad!

[hatrack]

20. Kicking for 9/6 data - the final core area at the Pole is now beginning to get patchy

Not a huge shift (yet) but within at most one degree of the North Pole.