Bering Sea storm: Has global warming made Alaska more vulnerable?
Bering Sea storm winds are lashing the coast of Alaska. Sea ice extending out from the shoreline has protected the coast from past Bering Sea storm surges, but there is little such ice this year, and global warming is likely to blame.
There is never any sea ice in the Bering Sea this early in the autumn. It doesn’t start forming until after the second week in November.
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/forecaster_handbooks/Aluetians/The%20Bering%20Sea%20Aleutian%20Islands%20And%20Gulf%20Of%20Alaska.3.pdf
That graph shows sea ice coverage for the open ocean: the satellite doesn’t have enough resolution to pick up the fast ice zone at the coast. Fast ice generally forms in October along the Bering Sea coast of Alaska (and a couple of weeks later on the Siberian side)
“Ice is continuously melting at the southern edge and forming to the north. The Bering Sea is almost completely free of ice from July through most of October.”
Nome is on the south side of the Peninsula.
Yes. Ice forms at the shoreline of Nome (in ~October) and moves southward to cover the open sea (which becomes substantially covered by ~December). As the ice moves southwards across the warmer open waters, the leading southern edge of the ice melts, but it is constantly replenished by the new ice forming in the coastal shallows.
That’s what they mean when they say “Ice is… forming to the north”. Nome, being on the southern coast of Alaska, is immediately north (or more strictly northeast) of the Bering sea!
What on Earth did you think they meant? Perhaps in Steve-world, ice forms on the north coast of Alaska and magically migrates southwards over land to cover the Bering sea? Does it grow dinky little icicle legs, or perhaps wheel itself on little trollies?
Perhaps in Peterland the temperatures get cold in the south first, and then move north as the winter progresses?
Also in Peterland, two metre thick ice forms overnight.
“The Bering Sea is almost completely free
of ice from July through most of October.”
Yes. The sea as a whole, and the northern shoreline of the sea (i.e. the southern Alaskan coastline) are two different things. Try reading the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first section of the first chapter, on the first page.
“The Bering Sea ice pack has an extremely important influence on the climate of the region, forming in October as fast ice along the shores of the Seward and Chukotsk peninsulas.”
Wow. One day no ice. Next day two metres thick.
Eh? Where are you getting that figure from, and what is the relevance to the current context?
The context is a storm up near Alaska, and the fact that the storm surge will be more severe in coastal areas that are not protected by a marginal zone of coastal fast ice – which would normally be expected to have started forming by this point, and hasn’t yet done so this year.
Nobody’s made any statements about thickness except you.
My point is that any ice would have just started forming and would be pretty thin. How much protection is that going to offer to a beach in 80 MPH winds?
Last time I checked…..thin ice is called a projectile
Down here we call it hurricane shutters
… actually, that’s their point. Give it back, you can’t have it!
The article explicitly states that this year the ice is only newly-formed and will likely act as a projectile, whereas in an average year it would be a few weeks thicker and have a dampening effect on the storm surge.
I’m done here – I guess from the above that you accept there’s a difference between fast ice and sea ice, and your snark about the Bering Sea being ice-free at this time of year is (a) wrong and (b) based on the wrong data source – i.e. satellite pictures of open ocean ice. That’s all I was after.
At this point the pair of us are just bickering about how thick we (in our uninformed majesty) think the fast ice will be at various dates. Unlike you, however, I’m willing to accept that the meteorologists on the ground, who, you know, actually live there might just know what they’re talking about.
Why don’t you email the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, Alaska? You could enlighten them as to how stupid and wrong they are, based on your extensive knowledge of the Alaskan coastline and how it interacts with local weather patterns.
a difference between fast ice and sea ice,
kinda like fast melt = Global warming 
Of course if they want more ice…..
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/what-was-life-like-in-the-little-ice-agepart-ii/