Fastest recorded August rate of Arctic ice loss

There's a couple of weeks to go in the melt season, but as a practical matter we're ending up where we were last year: Record ice loss in August.

The Parry Channel, the northern route of the Northwest Passage that really matters for larger vessels, is open for "the second time in recorded history -- and the second year": Northwest Passage northern route opens.

"The shallow-water route is the one that has traditionally seen some activity," Doug Bancroft, director of the federal ice agency, said yesterday. "In 2007, we saw the deeper-water, northern, more direct route [the Parry Channel - Ben] open for navigation by non-icebreaking vessels -- that was for the first time in modern history. We've got no record of it being like that before. And it's opened up again in the same manner … in the summer of 2008."

He said ships in the northern channel will encounter more ice this year than last, but not enough to prevent a safe ["safe" is an important qualifier, its not just open, its safe - Ben] transit through the channel that runs north of Baffin, Somerset, Prince of Wales, Victoria and Banks islands.

Hat tip to Mark Collins (The Torch). 

Edit: fixed title (Fasted to Fastest) September 12.

Comments

[Syed Basher]

Great post. Is there a way to obtain the time series data of plots? Your help will be highly appreciated. Thank you.