‘Beyond the extreme’: Scientists marvel at ‘increasingly non-natural’ Arctic warmth  

While it isn't as hot as Sydney has been, the Arctic is still wildly warmer than normal - ‘Beyond the extreme’: Scientists marvel at ‘increasingly non-natural’ Arctic warmth. How many years until it is ice free ?

Apparently Antarctic sea ice is likely to hit new record lows in the coming days as well...

2016 was the warmest year on record in the Arctic, and 2017 has picked up right where it left off. “Arctic extreme (relative) warmth continues,” Ryan Maue, a meteorologist with WeatherBell Analytics, tweeted on Wednesday, referring to January’s temperatures.

Veteran Arctic climate scientists are stunned. “[A]fter studying the Arctic and its climate for three and a half decades, I have concluded that what has happened over the last year goes beyond even the extreme,” wrote Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., in an essay for Earth magazine.

At the North Pole, the mercury has rocketed to near the melting point twice since November, and another huge flux of warmth is projected by models next week. Their simulations predict some places in the high Arctic will rise over 50 degrees above normal.