"August Seas Warmest in at Least 120 Years"

"The National Climatic Data Center has released its review of  worldwide sea surface temperatures for August and for the stretch from June through August and finds that both the month and the “summer” (as looked at from the Northern Hemisphere) were the warmest at least since 1880, when such records were first systematically compiled.

Sea ice in the Arctic appears to be starting the slow late-summer freeze after reaching its minimum extent several days ago, by a couple of estimates.... This season’s Arctic ice retreat ranks well behind the extraordinary  ice retreat of 2007 and also last year’s but remains below the average ice extent for the stretch since 1979, when satellites started monitoring Arctic conditions with some precision."

Andrew C. Revkin reports for Dot Earth in the New York Times September 16, 2009.