Inspired by the late Johnny Rook's Climaticide Chronicles, this is an occasional series on the state of Arctic sea ice.
The Arctic sea ice melt season has begun to pick up in pace the last couple of weeks. In fact, the Barrow AK web cam seems to be showing a bit of open water on the horizon (see photo below, and note the dark line near the horizon which may indicate open water). The temperature at the time of this photo, about 7 a.m. Alaska Time, was 29°F. Note that their snow cover is now gone for the summer.
Barrow AK Arctic Sea Ice Webcam, 7:12 a.m. AK Time 28 May 2011
I tried to get the NOAA North Pole camera graphics today, but their website seems to be down. These are set up at the North Pole in April of the melt year and then transmit pictures as the ice floe they're on move around in the ice pack during the melt season. Hopefully, nothing untoward has happened to prevent the pictures from being seen.
Follow me past the jump.