Hard to believe, I just noticed that the temperature reached 81 F (27 C) this afternoon in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. Tuktoyaktuk is a Inuvialuit village along the shore of the western Arctic Ocean. It is very unusual for it to get that warm right along the coast of the cold Arctic Ocean. The wind was from the south and southwest, which is coming off the land. If the wind suddenly shifted to the north, then we would probably see at least a 30-degree F drop in temperature in a very short time.

Here is a graphic showing the type and extent of sea ice over the western Arctic Ocean as of today.
The green is thin first-year ice, while the brown areas are thicker, older multi-year ice.

This next image shows the ice coverage over the western Arctic Ocean on every July 30th going back to 1971. The green line is the median. As you can see, the current sea ice coverage in the western Arctic is running slightly below-normal.

Posted by Brett Anderson on Thursday, July 30, 2009 5:49 PM
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