August’s great Arctic cyclone exacerbates sea ice melt

Ars Technica : This past August, while sea ice extent in the Arctic reached a new record low, an unusually large cyclone took place there. The storm was unusual in that Arctic cyclones tend to be more common and more severe in the winter. According to a paper published online in Geophysical Research Letters, the storm was the strongest on record for August and the 13th strongest among all Arctic storms. Although the researchers believe the August cyclone was a fluke weather event, the number of Arctic cyclones appears to be increasing, according to an article on the NASA Earth Observatory website. The cause is as yet unknown, but climate change may be affecting the severity of the storms by warming the Arctic Ocean and melting the sea ice cover.