Merry-go Round

Both the Northern and the Northwest Passages are open. Georg Hoffmann has more about the Beluga lines freighters headed to the mouth of the Ob. Some nice pictures also so you don't have to read German. Georg called the Beluga Lines and scored this information

According to Verena Beckhusen from the Beluga Lines, he expected savings for a fleet of 6 ships taking the North-East passage above Russia instead of going through the Indian on the path between east Asia and Europe, would be an impressive three million Euro.

Eli has been looking at the Uni-Bremen ice maps. What looks to be happening is that a great swath of ice is breaking up

If that goes we are very close to 2007. You can get another picture of this from the companion image



The forecast along the Russian coast is for ~ 10 C (high 40s Fahrenheit)

You can blow the maps up by clicking on them