Shrinking Sea Ice Area Helps Promote Record Hurricane Season

In Warnings from Katrina and Rita?, I provided a chart that plots the number of named storms over time for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.   This chart was created by a coworker from various internet data sources and goes back to the mid 1800s.  Â The article points out that hurricanes get their energy from the warming oceans.  

This article briefly covers one of the reasons the oceans are warming:  The sea ice at the North Pole is shrinking and more of the sun’s energy is being absorbed by the Arctic Ocean.

According to an article in a recent issue of Popular Science magazine, not yet available on the internet, there has been a loss of 500,000 square miles of sea ice since 1979 as measured at the height of summer when the sea ice shrinks to its annual minimum.  Â This loss is equivalent to the size of Alaska and can easily be seen in the two satellite photos below.

8/31/1979

Click on the image for a full view.

8/31/2005

Click on the image for a full view.

The chart below shows that there is a trend toward further sea ice reductions, more warming of the oceans, and more hurricanes.

For more on what has been happening with the sea ice at the North Pole, check out  The Cryosphere Today