As Lord Soth has pointed out in the latest SIE update one of the NOAA webcams at the North Pole is showing what looks like a melt pond.
Click the image for a larger version or click here for a live version.
The other webcam is not showing any puddles as of yet. Update June 26th: it does now...
Here's a map of the current position of the webcams. POPS-13 (green) is for the webcam showing the puddles, the PAWS buoy (red) corresponds to webcam nr 2:
Someone sent me a great link to compare these webcam pictures to images from previous years.
Meh; this is normal for midsummer. By the middle of August the view will be mostly water.
Posted by: Nick Barnes | June 25, 2010 at 10:01
Pretty sure both webcams are showing melt ponds now (12:40 pm UK time, June 25th)
Posted by: Peter Ellis | June 25, 2010 at 13:41
We have a "century break" today, gentlefolk--if it holds up under revision.
Either way, another massive day's melt.
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | June 26, 2010 at 06:22
I'd add that it's looking very warm indeed in Nunavut and particularly the Northwest Territories, where for a couple of the stations the forecast minimum exceeds the normal maximum--for most of next week. And freakishly, it just hit 18 C at Eureka. (That one's kind of hard to believe, actually--the average max is 7.4, and the previous record for June 25 was 17.2 (1981.))
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | June 26, 2010 at 06:35
if it holds up under revision
Kevin, I have the impression that there was no revision yesterday. Did you also notice this?
BTW, both webcams are showing extensive puddling, especially webcam 2.
Posted by: Neven | June 26, 2010 at 08:08
"Did you notice [no revision?]"
Must blush to admit I didn't notice whether there was or wasn't! I don't think there's been anything so far on the number for the 25th; certainly nothing significant.
(I've lapsed from doing my own Excel sheet, as I used to do--with more readable graphs from IJIS themselves, plus all the other online sources, plus the discussion here, I don't feel it's as helpful as it used to be. But if I were still doing it, I'd have had an answer to your question!)
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | June 26, 2010 at 14:08
The webcam picture is interesting, partly because it shows the "ground" view of the heavy overcast covering so much of the region at the moment.
One of the things I've been noticing with the station readings in the Canadian Arctic is that the minimum readings seem often to be relatively more elevated than the maxima. Not always, but enough that [sans analysis] I can't help but wonder if I'm actually "seeing" the well-known greenhouse pattern, whereby warming is more pronounced in the cooling phase of the diurnal cycle.
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | June 26, 2010 at 14:12
Only a 3K revision (looks like they are getting smaller), so the third century break for this month is a fact.
Posted by: Neven | June 26, 2010 at 16:14
Does anyone know what that yellow thing is that webcam 2 shows and that seems to have started sagging?
edit: Must be the buoy. Silly me.
Posted by: Neven | June 26, 2010 at 20:14
. . . and another century break, tentatively. . . with warmer weather and sunny skies still forecast over most of the Archipelago. . .
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | June 27, 2010 at 06:15
Indeed, Kevin. With a small revision like yesterday (from 106K to 103K) another century break is definitely a possibility.
Posted by: Neven | June 27, 2010 at 08:43