A brief report on Arctic ice after a cyclone - 30 July, 2020

A cyclone on the Beaufort Sea

I have been away for 36 hours. During that time there has been a cyclone in the Arctic Ocean.  I have not had any reports yet as to how serious it was but the material below gives the first clues to the damage that has been done to ice in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and Canada.

These two representations of sea ice extent and concentration gives a good clue - two big "holes in the ice", shown in black below.

This is from Climate Reanalyzer

This is the latest data from the US Navy on sea ice thickness - no more than about 0.5 metres (1.5 feet) before all this began.

Most of the Arctic Basin is in cloud.

But this shows the damage that has been wrought to the ice in those areas where we can see.

This data is from 3 days ago but clearly illustrates why there is no room for complacency.

These are sea surface temperature anomalies

These are temperatures above the ice.

The ice is being attacked from above, below - but also from the side.

https://portal.aoos.org/old/arctic.php?fbclid=IwAR3-qi7280OcXXkwLPXGRo_5-XhHvssT2AoS880kqAMrhbMx0iBHq7iEu40#map?lg=a5b58402-a9c1-11e3-a3fe-00219bfe5678&p=proj3572&b=bluemarble07