Arctic Death Spiral: The North Pole Lake

Climate Central with the Arctic global warming smoking gun:

The pictures are dramatic — a camera at the North Pole Environmental Observatory, sitting in the middle of what appears to be either a lake or open ocean, at the height of the summer sea ice melt season. Set against the backdrop of the precipitous decline in sea ice cover in recent decades due in large part to global warming, this would seem to be yet another alarming sign of Arctic climate change.

Image from one of the North Pole Environmental Observatory webcams, taken on Thursday, July 25.
Credit: NSF’s North Pole Environmental Observatory.

The Arctic has surface melt every summer and Climate Central’s alarmists weren’t sure if the ice buoy was located at the North Pole or a few hundred miles away:

Image: Galileo Movement

This is what the North Pole looked like in 1958 – 1959:

Skate (SSN-578), surfaced at the North Pole, 17 March 1959. Image from NAVSOURCE

Ice at the North Pole not so thick ~ Watts Up With That?

What would NSIDC and our media make of a photo like this if released by the NAVY today? Would we see headlines like “NORTH POLE NOW OPEN WATER”? Or maybe “Global warming melts North Pole”? Perhaps we would. sensationalism is all the rage these days. If it melts it makes headlines.

It was that way again in 1962:

Seadragon (SSN-584), foreground, and her sister Skate (SSN-578) during a rendezvous at the North Pole in August 1962

And of course then there’s this famous photo:

But contrast that to 1999, just 12 years later, lots of ice:

USS Hawkbill at the North Pole, Spring 1999. (US Navy Photo)

But in 1993, it’s back to thin ice again:

USS Pargo at the North Pole in 1993. (US Navy Photo)

The North Pole is not static, ice varies significantly. The Arctic is not static either. Variance is the norm.

UPDATE: Arctic Swimming Hole Gone

 

UPDATE via wattsupwiththat:

UW issues statement on the ‘North Pole Lake’

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Anthony Watts

From the University of Washington: Santa’s workshop not flooded – but lots of melting in the ArcticBy Hannah Hickey

Santa’s workshop at the North Pole is not under water, despite recent reports. A dramatic image captured by a University of Washington monitoring buoy reportedly shows a lake at the North Pole. But Santa doesn’t yet need to buy a snorkel.

“Every summer when the sun melts the surface the water has to go someplace, so it accumulates in these ponds,” said Jamie Morison, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and principal investigator since 2000 of the North Pole Environmental Observatory. “This doesn’t look particularly extreme.”

NSF North Pole Environmental Observatory The view from webcam 2 on July 26 shows open water on the ice.

After media coverage in CBS News, The Atlantic and the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Morison returned from overseas travel late last week to a pile of media inquiries. Over the weekend the team posted anexplanatory page on the project website. Keep Reading »

 

UPDATE

From wattsupwiththat

Follow up: the bogus ‘North Pole becomes a lake’ story

Posted on wattsupwiththat  August 10, 2013 by Anthony Watts

Remember this Associated Press before and after image that purportedly showed the North Pole turning into a lake due to “global warming”?

This was the day Brad Johnson of “Forecast the Facts” (a political group affiliated with the Center for American Progress and paid to harass TV weathercasters and meteorologists who don’t share their melting world view) made himself look like the complete idiot we know him to be. Observe the propaganda they sent around:

Note that WUWT published on why this imagery has no scientific merit, and the principal scientist issued a statement saying that it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Even AP saw they’d screwed up and issued a retraction:

Title : ELIMINATION North Pole Lake

Caption : EDITORS, PHOTO EDITORS, AND PHOTO LIBRARIANS – PLEASE ELIMINATE AP PHOTO NY109 THAT WAS SENT ON SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2013. THE CAPTION INACCURATELY STATED THAT ‘THE SHALLOW MELTWATER LAKE IS OCCURRING DUE TO AN UNUSUALLY WARM PERIOD.’ IN FACT, THE WATER ACCUMULATES IN THIS WAY EVERY SUMMER. IN ADDITION, THE IMAGES DO NOT NECESSARILY SHOW CONDITIONS AT THE NORTH POLE, BECAUSE THE WEATHER BUOY CARRYING THE CAMERA USED BY THE NORTH POLE ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATORY HAS DRIFTED HUNDREDS OF MILES FROM ITS ORIGINAL POSITION, WHICH WAS A FEW DOZEN MILES FROM THE POLE- This frame grab provided by NOAA shows images from the wide-angle camera trained on a weather buoy maintained by the North Pole Environmental Observatory at the North Pole. The top image is a June 7, 2013 frame grab. The bottom image is a July 25, 2013 frame grab. (AP Photo/NOAA)

Source: http://foto.agerpres.ro/index.php?i=7147048

Will Brad Johnson and “Forecast the Facts” issue a retraction? Doubtful, because to do so would highlight their own stupidity disguised as paid agenda.

 

h/t to Brendan

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