There is also the transfer of heat from the relatively warmer water through the ice to heat the cold air.
And what do you think phlogiston means by this?
Some have argued for atmospheric heat energy to be used as a better and more meaningful metric than a supposed global mean temperature. Heat is a product of temp and water content. Viewed this way, decreasing water vapour could mean that increasing temperatures have not reflected increasing heat.
Update 1:
Another new factoid, which "simple physics" probably also goes a long way to explaining why an extra cold winter follows an extra hot summer - not! (courtesy John Kehr's guest post):In January the anomaly in the Arctic was well above average. By simple physics that meant the Arctic was losing energy to space at a much higher rate than average. Normally the Arctic is losing energy at a rate of 163 W/m^2. In January of 2013 it was losing energy at a rate of 173 W/m^2. That 6% increase in rate of energy loss meant that the Arctic ended up with a negative anomaly in February.
Update 2: Fake WUWT skeptics and those darned confusing anomalies (a thermometer is not a human contrivance):
Theo Goodwin says:
March 6, 2013 at 8:58 pm Yep, use of anomalies causes confusion. That is reason enough to get rid of them. But there is another important reason. Use of anomalies hides the actual data – thermometer readings. Taking a thermometer reading is an act of reaching into the environment and withdrawing a fact from it. To convert a thermometer reading to an anomaly you have to compare the thermometer reading to an average reading – you have to hide the fact behind a human contrivance. So much for empirical science.
Update 3: Sure to boggle even the WUWT mind.
How earth heating up means earth is getting colder as explained by dp:If you are an alarmist you should be happy to know that warm air is a good thing because that heat heads to space. Double good if that heat has come from the ocean. negative balance of energy. Yet we can expect endless complaints of a warming planet. N0 – that is a cooling planet! Hot air – radiant energy to space.
