Chart of the Day: Antarctic Sea Ice Extent 1979~2014

Chart of the Day: Antarctic Sea Ice Extent 1979~2014

Antarctic sea ice reached a record on 22 September

Al Gore hardest hit...

Via WUWT:

Antarctica: The extent of sea ice (white) reached a record on 22 September. The yellow line shows the median of 1981 to 2000. Ice shelf is shown in gray.

AP: Global warming is going to cause more Antarctic ice or something

Arctic ice has declined recently, but Antarctic ice is increasing. This infuriates global warming true believers. They have a solution now. Blame expanding Antarctic ice on global warming. That's brilliant. Do they think people are complete idiots?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ice goes on seemingly forever in a white pancake-flat landscape, stretching farther than ever before. And yet in this confounding region of the world, that spreading ice may be a cockeyed signal of man-made climate change, scientists say.

This is Antarctica, the polar opposite of the Arctic.

While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. That happened just days after reports of the biggest loss of Arctic sea ice on record.

Climate change skeptics have seized on the Antarctic ice to argue that the globe isn't warming and that scientists are ignoring the southern continent because it's not convenient. But scientists say the skeptics are misinterpreting what's happening and why.

Shifts in wind patterns and the giant ozone hole over the Antarctic this time of year — both related to human activity — are probably behind the increase in ice, experts say. This subtle growth in winter sea ice since scientists began measuring it in 1979 was initially surprising, they say, but makes sense the more it is studied.

Chart of the Day: Arctic Sea Ice Returns To Normal Levels

Via WUWT:

Source: http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png