Tag Archives: Arctic

Sea ice loss remains a serious issue

The Met Office has just published its latest briefing on Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The update doesn’t reveal any record-breaking figures, but it does reveal that sea ice loss remains a serious issue. Alex West who co-ordinates the sea … Continue reading

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Sea surface temperatures breaking records

The global sea surface temperatures for both April and May were the highest on record for those calendar months in a series stretching back to 1850. That is according to the HadSST.4.0.1.0 dataset compiled by the Met Office. With the … Continue reading

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Poles apart: latest Met Office sea ice report published

The latest stocktake of sea ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic has just been published by the Met Office. It might be tempting to consider the many apparent similarities between the polar regions, but there are also key differences … Continue reading

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Summer temperature 2018 – the ‘new normal’?

The Met Office Chief Scientist, Professor Stephen Belcher, appeared on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday evening to talk about current extreme temperatures and climate change. The interviewer Emily Maitlis asked if the current hot temperatures we are seeing can be considered the … Continue reading

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An expert’s view on unusually warm Arctic temperatures

This year has seen some exceptionally low extents of Arctic sea ice as well as periods of much higher than usual temperatures in the region. Ed Blockley manages the Met Office Polar Climate group, whose responsibilities include monitoring the increases and … Continue reading

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Arctic sea ice reaches minimum extent for 2014

Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum for 2014, according to preliminary figures from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US. The extent dropped to 5.02 million square kilometres (1.94 million square miles) on … Continue reading

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Arctic sea ice reaches minimum extent for 2013

Arctic sea ice has been in the media quite a bit this month and we looked at the issue in a blog a couple of weeks ago. Late last week there was an update to the continuing story, as the … Continue reading

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Is Arctic sea ice shrinking or expanding?

The decline of Arctic sea ice is often pointed to as one of the most visible indicators of a warming world but earlier this week the Mail on Sunday published an article claiming the ice is in recovery. This was … Continue reading

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Discussing the UK’s recent ‘unusual seasons’

There have been some media stories this morning about a meeting due to be held next week at the Met Office to discuss the recent run of unusual seasons here in the UK. This will draw together some experts from … Continue reading

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What’s in store this winter? Responding to the headlines

It seems that it is the time of year for colourful headlines about an impending big freeze. We had them at this time last year, which prompted our Chief Executive to write an opinion piece in The Times. Now we … Continue reading

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