The 'bellwether' continent of Antarctica sees more record sea ice

This past week, the Antarctic sea icepack hit a 36-year record high in total volume at a whopping 20.11297 million square kilometers in area. This beat the previous record set the year before in 2013 in late Sept-ember of 19.5116 million square kilometers, which topped the 2012 record of 19.4813 million square kilometers. (Seeing a 'trend,' folks?)

According to various climate scientists, "strengthening and coverging frigid winds" circulating the South Pole can explain at least 80 percent of this astounding increase in Antarctic ice. These fierce winds shove the various icepacks together causing riding. This creates thicker, longer-lasting sheets of ice like the kind which trapped a global warming ship off Antarctica this past January during the south polar summer season.

Not only has the Antarctic icepack been increasing in recent years, but many of the glaciers in the Southern Hemisphere are likewise growing in size, especially in southern Argentina, southern Chile and New Zealand.

During the past couple of winter seasons (June-August) in the Southern Hemisphere, we've seen record cold temperatures and 'rare' snowfalls as far north as parts of Paraguay and extreme southern Brazil in South America and Johannesburg in South Africa. Even subtropical southeastern Australia this past July saw snowflakes mixed in with the rains.

By extreme contrast, however, the warmer Arctic regions are slower to cool off. This 2014 summer melt season was the sixth lowest in record in total area at 1.96 million square miles, 11,600 square miles below last summer's melt and 440,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average. The all-time record summer minimum in ice volume was 2012 with 1.32 million square miles. Satellite icepack record-keeping in both hemispheres began in 1979.

The main climatological reason that the past two years have seen a rather impressive overall surge in the expansion of sea ice in both hemispheres is that the summer seasons have been cooler than usual. Some cities in the Upper Midwest haven't seen a 90-degree plus afternoon in nearly two years.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOK

As expected, we've had a beautiful September with mostly sunny skies and very little precipitation during an extended period of 'Indian Summer' weather following a brief early frost and freeze on Sept. 11 and 12 that wiped out some gardens in the normally chilly spots of North Idaho between Rathdrum and Twin Lakes.

The summer of 2014 was hot and dry as predicted by Meteorologist Randy Mann and me. There were 30 'Sholeh Days' at or above 90 degrees at my station in northwest Coeur d'Alene on Player Drive. Randy observed 31 days of 90 degree plus weather. There were two afternoons, for the first time since 2009, with scorching readings at or above 100 degrees, the season's warmest temperature of 102 degrees on July 29 and 100 degrees on July 31.

July had a below normal .72 inches of rainfall despite a strong thunderstorm on the 24th. August was a bit wetter than usual with 1.30 inches of precipitation thanks to two briefly powerful thunderstorms on the 15th and the 20th. Thus far in September, as of the morning of the 26th, we had only gauged .56 inches of rain on Player Drive, most of which again due to thunderstorm activity on Sept. 3. Our normal precipitation for the entire month of September since daily records began in 1895 has been 1.48 inches. Last September, in 2013, we received a much above normal 3.10 inches in Coeur d'Alene.

Longer-term, from the official start of the fall season on Sept. 22 to the end of a rather soggy 2014, we should see a pattern of 'sun and showers' develop much like we observed during this past spring season. We are likely to once again surpass 30 inches of precipitation this year by Dec. 31 in Coeur d'Alene. Our 119-year normal rainfall since 1895 has been 26.77 inches. The Spokane area, by comparison, where they've missed many of our recent strong thunderstorms, will be lucky to reach 15 or 16 inches of precipitation this year, a bit below normal.

As I've said in recent articles, the type of winter weather that we'll see in 2014-15 locally in the Inland Empire will depend at least partially upon what happens in the next several months to the current rather 'weak' El Nino in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. If El Nino strengthens, we will likely see less snowfall than usual and milder temperatures overall. But, if it falls apart, all bets are off.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com