The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials). 😉
Main Topic: Prediction of When Arctic Will Go Ice Free
Dear Diary. I came across article presenting another “how fast, how bad” claim and prediction. All of us dealing with climate realize that because we have not gotten our fossil fuel house in order, the Arctic will sooner or later be ice free for at least a few weeks during the summer. The debate now is when not if we will see this phenomenon verified from satellite imagery. Of course, since this is one tipping point, more liquid Arctic waters will be absorbing incoming solar radiation rather than reflecting it if waters remain ice covered…an effect cascading into further global warming.
Here are more details from Green Matters:
Climate Scientists Predict Exact Day When the Arctic Will Go Ice-Free and It’s Sooner Than We Think
Even minor temperature changes show drastic impacts on Earth’s North and South poles and soon one of them will turn ice-free.
PUBLISHED 1/31/2025
A rocky terrain in the Arctic losing all its ice as it melted away. (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels | Jean-Christophe André)
The European Space Agency revealed that the earth is now 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than before, and recent assessments have deduced that this change risks crossing delicate climate tipping points. Even minor fluctuations in the planet’s temperature are felt at Earth’s extreme poles—the North and South poles. While the drastic implications of global warming in Greenland and the Arctic are not new information, a new study predicted that the latter will be ice-free in three years’ time.
Melting icebergs in Greenland. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Jean-Christophe Andre)
By summer 2027, the Arctic Ocean will witness its first ice-free day at the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications in December 2024, this “ominous milestone for the planet” will inevitably occur between a period of nine to 20 years after 2023 even if humans decide to modulate greenhouse gas emissions to ideal concentrations. Co-author Alexandra Jahn said, “The first ice-free day in the Arctic won’t change things dramatically.” She is a climatologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and an associate professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the institution.
Coastal area in Greenland fully devoid of ice with a scanty population occupying the place. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Mikhail Nilov)
Considering the worst-case scenario, the snow-clad Arctic Ocean will go ice-free within three years. Jahn indicated that while the ice-free Arctic may not be the end of the world, it is evidence that “we’ve fundamentally altered one of the defining characteristics of the natural environment in the Arctic Ocean, which is that it is covered by sea ice and snow year-round, through greenhouse gas emissions,” per Science Daily. She teamed up with Celine Heuze from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and an international research team to predict the first ice-free day in the northernmost ocean of the North Pole using climate models simulating the environmental impacts on Arctic ice.
A person holding a burning globe. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | ArtHouse Studio)
The Arctic Ocean is known to be the home of polar bears and plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance in the world’s climate, per WWF. The Arctic ice reflects most of the sunlight it receives back into space, thus, imparting a cooling effect for the rest of the planet. However, the Arctic sea ice has been melting at an alarming rate of 12% each decade inching closer to a day when all of its ice will disappear from the face of Earth, though, temporarily. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that September 2024 hit an all-time low in Arctic sea ice with the least frozen seawater record since 1978. The criteria for the Arctic Ocean to be ruled as ice-free would require the sea ice levels to fall below 1 million square kilometers, per the study.
Iceberg on the body of water near the mountain. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Lars Bugge Aarset)
The scientists also predicted based on their projections that while the ice-free day in the Arctic might occur as soon as 2027, the first ice-free month in the polar region will inevitably happen by the 2030s. “Because the first ice-free day is likely to happen earlier than the first ice-free month, we want to be prepared. It’s also important to know what events could lead to the melting of all sea ice in the Arctic Ocean,” Heuze explained. The ice-free Arctic will only add to the drastic impacts of global warming as less ice will reflect sunlight in minimal amounts. The darker ocean will, in turn, absorb and trap heat from the Sun facilitating warmer climates that could potentially alter wind and ocean current patterns.
POPULAR ON GREEN MATTERS
MORE ON GREEN MATTERS
Scientists Tested 20-Year-Old Plastic From The Ocean Depths — and Made a Disturbing Discovery
On recovering discarded plastic from a great depth, the experts were taken aback to see its shape perfectly impact and there was more.
2/1/2025
Scientists Worried As One Major Problem Could Be Putting Antarctica’s Largest Ice Shelf at Risk
The gushing spout of warm water could rapidly melt the Antarctic ice shelf and lead to rising sea levels sooner than we think.
2/1/2025
This Chilean desert became a scapegoat for reckless humans who have no regard for how they affect the natural resources.
2/1/2025
1/31/2025
Much more news located here:
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is some new January 2025 climatology:
Here is More Climate News from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)