The ice returns

I've been keeping an eye out on the ice charts published by Norway here which show that most of the east coat of Greenland north of Tasiilaq has now been locked in.

Any boats still in Scorsby Sound or the amazing Kangerdulgssuaq Fjord won't be going anywhere for a couple of months.

And maybe longer than they planned - for apparently the northern ice sheets have bounced back with an average 50% more cubic kilometers of ice in October than the low in 2012.

Sounds good news doesn't it? Well it depends which year you compare the ice levels to.

If you use the 1980s as the baseline then ice levels have fallen a whopping 55% to 9,000 cubic km, just 45% of the 20,000 cubic km it used to be.

It will be worth keeping an eye on those ice sheets in 2014 to see whether this year is indeed a good news blip or a pause on a long term bad news trend.

And if you are iced in Scorsby Sound or Kangerdulgssuaq Fjord, hope you are snug and warm because it looks like you're going to have to be patient...