AN INTERESTING PHOTO TELLS A STORY

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

So why the heck have I included a picture of a navy submarine above the water in a weather blog post? Well, I thought it was a very nice picture. We all love a little history right?

It goes beyond that and here's why: the caption from this picture on a navy picture archive says "surfaced at the north pole, 17 March 1959". Re-read that date. March 17, 1959. It's LIQUID, not ice!

What am I getting at? Well, I'm a firm believer in oceanic cycles. A few that have an impact are the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). They both have a "warm" phase and a "cold" phase. The PDO is now exiting its warm phase and will soon be cool. The AMO is sort of in the middle, but just past the hump going towards cooler.

What's interesting is this: That date in 1959 coincides with a warm signal from both the PDO and AMO. When satellites were first used in the 70s, we were in the middle of the cool phases for both, and as would be expected a relatively high point for ice concentration. Get what I'm hinting at here?

I know this is quite opinionated, but I feel strongly that our climate perspective is merely in its infancy. While its true that ice concentrations in the northern hemisphere are decreasing, wouldn't you know that they're INCREASING in the southern. Remember, the world is a lot bigger than we sometimes think it is. It's like that lovely little law of physics: for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.