A two million square kilometer January ice loss (about 13%) since 1980. And its cold and dark up in the Arctic, in winter. This time of year isn’t as sensitive to AGW as the summer. In spite of that, since October, the ice cover has been less than its ever been for this time of year–even less than the record low year of 2012.

Some of the climate Cassandras are saying we may have our first ice-free Arctic this summer, but I personally think that’s a bit too pessimistic. I’ll go with the trend lines, my guess is about 2030.

Wait until the Big Melt in September. And its all going to happen on Trump’s watch! As for Mr Putin, soon Mother Russia will finally have thousands of miles of ice-free Arctic coastline, year round, allowing her to finally become the great maritime power she was always destined to be. Mackinder and Mahan must be spinning in their graves.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2017/02/monthly_ice_01_NH_v2.1-350×270.png