Moisture is seen as clouds, El-Nino Anvil seeding maxima's are occurring now. Since November, they battered fortress winter with clouds weakening its base (ice) and strength (cold air), till this date. 3000 miles to the North from Virginia, its warm, how warm? All time highs for certain, +10 C above average very recently, on the ground and in the upper air In mostly clear high arctic air! Unbelievable. I study the weather patterns, they look familiar, there is a moderate High Pressure over the Arctic Ocean Gyre current, but Canadian temperatures surely are not normal. The only thing not looking right are multiple veins (leads) of the Arctic Ocean Ice sheet, showing chaos, the machinations of pure unconsolidated pack ice, in a mess from its former almost lead free self. The only source of heat to the -25 C Pole, atmospheric advection and the more open ocean covered by thinner ice.

Contrast adjusted Infrared picture of the Arctic Ocean. Either the ice is seen badly broken by leads, or its covered by low warm clouds. More NOAA images can be seen here.

Further recent comparison by EH2r method prove that Arctic ice is no longer cooling off the air as much, as it use too, in a feedback loop of old, when ice thickened gradually over winter, making winter a cold monster with a thick white skin, especially over the ocean. Insulation of thicker ice, once greatly reduced, explains the impossible, warm air during starry nights following short low sun days. Having a sun so low in sky its heating over the surface trivial at best. Yet its warmer, much warmer.

WD Feb 11, 2010