Loading ...Arctic sea ice just reached its highest level in 21 years, and it’s going largely unnoticed
Cyclical natural climate variations, not human-driven climate change, appear to offer the best explanation of trends in the polar sea ice extent going back to the early 1800s.
The dramatic, if largely unpublicized, recovery in Arctic sea ice is continuing into the New Year. Despite the contestable claims of the “hottest year ever” (and even hotter in 2024), Arctic sea ice on January 8th stood at its highest level in 21 years. Last December, the U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) revealed that sea ice recorded its third-highest monthly gain in the modern 45-year record. According to the science blog No Tricks Zone, the reading up to January 8th has now far exceeded the average for the years 2011-2020. It also exceeds the average for the years 2001-2010, and points directly upwards with regard to the average for the years 1991-2000.
The graph below shows the scale of the recovery compared to all the years tracked in the modern satellite record.