Guest humor by David Middleton
Climate Change Weather Disables US Navy’s Newest Ship!
Brand-new US Navy warship trapped in Canada amid cold and ice
Fox News
A brand-new U.S. Navy warship has not moved from Montreal since Christmas Eve and will spend the winter stuck in Canada due to cold and ice.
The USS Little Rock – unveiled in a ceremony on Dec. 16 in Buffalo, New York and attended by nearly 9,000 people – has not moved far since due to adverse weather conditions that kept the warship trapped at bay in Canada, the Toronto Star reported.
The warship known as a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) cost $440 million to build and stretches 387 feet in length and weighs 15 tons more than the Statue of Liberty. It is capable of traveling more than 46 miles per hour.
Such combat ships are described as agile and designed for rapid transitions between missions with minimal manning. They are used for surface warfare, counter piracy and drug operations, as well as other first response missions.
[…]
“The temperatures in Montreal and throughout the transit area have been colder than normal, and included near-record low temperatures, which created significant and historical conditions in the late December, early January time frame,” Lt.-Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told the newspaper.
“Keeping the ship in Montreal until waterways are clear ensures the safety of the ship and crew, and will have limited impact on the ship’s operational schedule.”
[…]
The crew stationed on the ship was provided with cold-weather clothing and will focus on mission training while the delay continues.
USS Little Rock was “built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin“. She had just been commissioned in a ceremony in Buffalo and was making a “routine visit” to Montreal on her way to her future home port, Mayport, Florida…
The USS Little Rock is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin. Designed to operate off coastlines and in shallow water, littoral combat ships can carry out anti-submarine, anti-mine, anti-surface, and amphibious warfare missions. Little Rock and her sister ships are small, fast, and agile.
Unfortunately for the crew, the ship was not agile enough to escape the rapidly advancing winter ice. Commissioned in Buffalo, New York on December 16, the ship stopped in Montreal for a routine visit before heading for the East Coast via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Once in Montreal, a “historic” cold snap caused sea ice to form faster than expected along the seaway, which authorities promptly closed for the season. According to Weather.com, the percentage of the Great Lakes covered in ice increased from three percent on Christmas Eve to 30 percent by January 6.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is the only way in and out of the Great Lakes to the open ocean, and it typically stays closed until March. The Navy has accepted that the 389-foot long, 3,400-ton Little Rock won’t be able to get under way to her home port of Mayport, Florida until the seaway reopens.
Clearly USS Little Rock was designed to be an agile pirate-hunting warship in an ice-free world, because “the ship was not agile enough to escape the rapidly advancing winter ice.” Good thing the Pentagon dropped climate change from its mission list… Losing your newest ship to “rapidly advancing winter ice” would have been seen as a defeat in the war against weather climate change. Now it’s just an opportunity for the crew to focus on “mission training” until spring.
In a totally unrelated bit of trivia, my second cousin, the late RADM. Roderick O. Middleton served on two of Little Rock’s predecessors. He was a gunnery officer on CL-92 USS Little Rock (1946-1948) and he was commanding officer of CLG-4 USS Little Rock (1964-1965). Oddly enough, CL-92 and CLG-4 were the same ship. RADM Middleton also had a tour of duty at NASA, where he was involved in the Apollo program (1965-1969).
You do not have to go through the seaway to get to New York. It will be longer but wise-up.
Get real and get the work-ups under way.
Unless you plan on portaging her overland to the Hudson River, the Saint Lawrence Seaway is the only path from Wisconsin to the ocean.
http://www.vacationstogo.com/images/ports/maps/1580_w.gif
There is the Erie Canal, but it’s not big enough for a ship that size, and likely froze up about the same time anyway.
She already transited the Eerie Canal on her way from Buffalo to Montreal.
The Erie Canal is a barge canal in Upstate New York, your thinking of the Welland Canal that connects Lakes Erie and Ontario. The USCG Ship Mackinaw had been down that way, but got moved to help with problems in the St Marys River, so that all the loaded ore carriers in Superior could make it out by the January 15 deadline/
Actually… I wasn’t even thinking. The map I posted even has the Welland Canal labeled.
According to Wikipedia
I was thinking of the canal that connects Lake Eerie to Lake Ontario.
She’s in Montreal. Even if she could get back to Buffalo, I don’t think an LCS could pass through the Eerie Canal.
No. Most, but not all, of The Eire Canal bridges are the original “bend over and duck” low bridges for the narrow horse-drawn canal boats of the 1820’s.
The Great Lakes and St Lawrence River freeze over every year. And the Navy knows this ever since their victories up there in the War of 1812, the colonist battles up near Quebec and north NY finger lakes in the Revolutionary War.
Shhhh! They don’t want anyone to find out about the Philadelphia Experiment teleportation technology!
They allow the New York Stake Barge Canal to drain in Winter. At the moment, I expect it is about 3 feet deep and maybe 10 feet wide. And even were the canal full, I suspect the Little Rock might be too tall for the numerous bridges over the canal and too long for the locks. They are designed to accomodate barges and tugs. The other alternative is the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal which connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi via the Des Plaines River. But you’d need to get the Little Rock to Chicago which is surely impractical in the dead of Winter.
Perhaps the crew of the Little Rock will develop a liking for poutine.
I’m an Aussie so forgive the silly question: How do you get a ship down the Niagra falls?
You take the Welland Canal.
Nobody in their right mind would rather spend the winter in Buffalo than Montreal. Ooh La la!
It is true, you do not have to go through the seaway to get to NY State. The ship was commissioned in Buffalo afterall. You do have to go through the seaway to get a ship to NYC. The Erie canal has not been a canal in a LONG time. Please take it from a life long NY resident whos lived in NYC and Syracuse each for several years among other places. In the Syracuse area, many parts of the old canal are roads now with the ditch having been filled in. I have seen it. That ,though is besides the point. The canal is too narrow for a ship of that size. You can take, or could when i was in college at SU years ago, take a ride on a old canal boat for some short sections that have been redug.
This is not exactly the Northwest Passage we’re talking about here. So is this low standards and incompetence of the Canadian Coast Guard?
Information on the seaway freeze up
“Technically the St Lawrence Seaway (correctly called the Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway) spans over 2500 Miles (4400 Kms) from the “Lakehead” at Thunder Bay, Ontario thru the Great Lakes, and down to the mouth of the St Lawrence River at the Gulf of the St Lawrence on the Atlantic Ocean.
Surprisingly, a great portion of this giant waterway DOES FREEZE in the wintertime including portions from Quebec City to Montreal and west onto Kingston (at the mouth of Lake Ontario). As well many of the Great Lakes also have a fair bit of freezing to them, including Lake Erie which freezes over almost every year. As for boat / shipping traffic… things come to a standstill pretty much between December and April (dates vary every year depending on the weather, water levels, ice situation and ice flows)…
For more info on this great Canadian feature I refer you to Wikipedia (a great source for general overview info on ALL things Canadian) as well as to the official website for the Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway”
The warmers tend to ignore the seaway.
So Canadian commerce stops in the winter also (?).
Resourceguy
Commerce doesn’t stop. That’s why we have dog sleds.
@ResourceGuy.
No, it just shifts from boats to trucks. Google “ice roads”.
Canada’s East coast has large sea ports in Halifax and St. John (and others) that are year round. These would be used once the seaway have frozen over, and cargo transferred to train.
Reply to ResourceGuy January 23, 2018 at 12:03 pm
So American commerce stops also?
ResourceGuy I suggest before you keep digging your hole deeper read up on the seaway, Great Lakes shipping, American and Canadian seasonal aspects. If you don’t, a bigger shovel will be needed.
I can read that a little ice shuts the seaway down and not just for a few days or weeks either.
Um its not a little ice, you need a bigger shovel.
Here is the CBC on the story
The USS Little Rock is shown moored in Montreal’s Old Port Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The newly commissioned Navy warship will be wintering in Montreal after its journey to Florida was interrupted by cold and ice. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)
Instead, the 118-metre Freedom-variant vessel has been moored in Montreal’s Old Port area since Christmas Eve due to unusually heavy ice conditions. Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson says the Navy has now decided to leave the ship in place until the winter weather improves.
While there’s no departure date scheduled, she says the St. Lawrence Seaway is generally navigable by mid-March. Hillson says the crew is doing well and will focus on training and readiness while waiting to travel to warmer waters.
The icy waterways have caused similar issues elsewhere this winter. Six ships were halted near Kahnawake on New Years Eve for a time, and days later, a ferry shuttling about 20 passengers from Lévis to Quebec City got stuck in ice for more than four hours.
More Navy incompetence to go with the ship collisions in Japan.
Not sure I approve of anyone posting online the exact location of a NATO ally’s warship.
Being stuck is funny.
Being sunk is not.
Don’t worry MC. Canada’s fleet of nuclear subs is protecting them.
I highly suspect any enemy of NATO capable of actually attacking the vessel where she is has capabilities (e.g., satellite) to see her where she is now. I also suspect an enemy of that caliber isn’t going to dare attack her. The response would likely be overwhelming, i.e., their behinds would become toasty in the very near future.
🙂
Courtney, I would generally agree. However, being in port, especially in an allied nation, especially our neighbor to the north’s, is a completely different situation. Anyone with the capability to attack the ship could see the public records of who is docked, and any group with the resources to seriously threaten them would have access to their own satellite sources.
There are icebreakers, but icebreakers need room to maneuvre to be effective and the ice they break has to go somewhere, so icebreaking in canals and narrow passages isn’t really practicable.
tty
To illustrate. Look at how narrow the water is around the trapped warship, and between the trapped ship and the far shore.
An icebreaker rides “up” on the ice, breaks “Down” unto and through the ice with its armored sloping and rounded bow and the weight of the hull. The broken ice chucks and packs moves out and under the hull to both sides and floats up. Or, depending on ice thickness, the ice breaker “pushes” the ice sideways from the bow as it moves forwards, and the ice again moves out and sideways from the bow down the ice breaker hull. The following ships then tuck in very close behind the ice breaker and follow literally right in its wake pushing the broken ice away with their hulls. Imagine what happens when sea ice chunks (1-3 feet thick) get trapped between the hulls of a trimaran or catamaran.
Works in open ice-covered water. In very narrow areas, the ice will get pushed into the banks and close up behind behind the icebreaker, or get pushed sideways into the trapped ship near the pier. Pushing sideways tends to break the pier beams as well with ice trapped between the icebreaker and pier.. Sonar domes? (fiberglass!) Big and bulging out from the hull, if present on these ships, would get destroyed.
Not so tty. Norwegian icebreakers are known to work is close quarters.
ResourceGuy wrote, “This is not exactly the Northwest Passage we’re talking about here. So is this low standards and incompetence of the Canadian Coast Guard?”
No. It is not.
Winter Navigation on the Great Lakes: A Review of Environmental Studies
Abstract : In 1970, Congress authorized a three-part Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Navigation Season Extension Program. It authorized a winter navigation demonstration program, a detailed survey study of season extension feasibility and a study of insurance rates for shippers. This report provides a review of numerous environmental and engineering studies conducted as part of the demonstration and feasibility portions of the program, as well as many environmental studies conducted after the completion of the original program. Topics include sediment transport, shoreline erosion, shore structure damage, oil and hazardous substance spills, biological effects, ship-induced vibrations and ice control systems.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a295586.pdf
ECONOMICS OF WINTER NAVIGATION IN THE GREAT LAKES AND ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY
The recent achievement of year-round navigation on the Great Lakes makes pertinent a survey of shipowners’ costs and benefits resulting from that development. Success on the Lakes also provides new evidence of the probable benefits of parallel extensions of the season in the St. Lawrence Seaway. Following general discussions of the pros and cons of winter navigation, the paper describes the analytical techniques developed by the authors for predicting the economics of extending the operating season both on the Lakes and through the Seaway. The probable economic benefits accruing to each of several kinds of ships are shown. In the case of Great Lakes bulk carriers, the effect of changes in each of several key parameters (for example, bow shape, severity of winter, and ship ice class) is also shown. In addition to economics, the impact of ice navigation on energy utilization is estimated, and possible environmental dangers are considered. Overall, it is concluded that commercial users of Great Lakes and Seaway ships have strong incentives to encourage year-round navigation. Shipowners, while seeming to benefit less than their customers, also have good reason to move in the same direction.
https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=29376
1. It isn’t cheap.
2. It isn’t easy.
3. It’s complicated.
Come back after you’ve done your homework. Perhaps you could write a report for our readers.
ABB
http://new.abb.com/marine/vessel-segments/ice
Up thread ResourceGuy made a snide and fully unsupported remark …
More Navy incompetence to go with the ship collisions in Japan.
Which Navy?
Then he provides a link to ABB which includes the this interesting information …
ABB modernization adds 20 years’ service life to Canadian icebreakers
2017-12-20 – The modernization of CCGS Pierre Radisson has been successfully completed in an upgrade program that will ultimately cover 10 ships in the Canadian Coast Guard fleet.
http://www.abb.com/cawp/seitp202/2cf9ebf54198a0dbc12581fc0041b5bc.aspx
Be serious or be gone.
Probably the US Navy. It is their obligation (not the Canadian Authorities) to ensure that the vessel transits in good time, before the seaway is closed by ice.
This is well known in commercial shipping, and under most charters, an owner can refuse a charterer’s order to call there, if there is a risk that the ship will get trapped, and often additional insurance is required.
But hey, the US Navy is doing its bit to save the planet from global warming, since when in port, the vessel will use less fuel and emit less CO2.
Here is a typical charterparty clause: https://highseas-shipping.com/seaway-and-great-lakes-trading-clause/
And this is from the great lakes St Lawrence Seaway System website:
See: http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/commercial/vessel_transit.html
It does appear that someone made a bit of a cock up.
And I am sure the training is very rigorous. If only to keep the crew members minds off the fact they were supposed to be in sunny Florida about now.
I will happily admit that the frozen St. Lawrence is neither unprecedented nor a sign if imminent descent into the worst depths of our current ice age, if the warmunistas could just admit that every grass fire, tornado, hot summer evening and tropical cyclone are not evidence that humans are controlling the weather and should be scraped from the Earth.
True… But launching a ship from a Great Lakes shipyard, to be commissioned in Buffalo in December and then making a port call in Montreal and getting iced in until spring… is a funny story.
The crew probably prefers Montreal in a friendly foreign country to Persian Gulf.
Was the launching delayed?
Her departure from Buffalo was delayed 3 days.
…And typical for the Navy.
Not funny, it is just an example of the present state of our military after Obama. It hasn’t been in this much problem since Jimmy Carter.
These orders came down during the Obama Global Warming Administration. This early freeze would not have happened had Hillary won as she was supposed to. Montreal would be basking in 40 degrees and sunshine. As always this is all Trump’s fault.
Seems strange to me that they would plan a launch this close to the date of freeze up.
There were probably some schedules of dignitaries involved in this timing issue and they are lying low right now. Very low
Al Gore should come here and thaw all the ice, there’s freezing rain today.
I recall reading something the last few days about the ship and that it had an aluminum alloy composition and could not tolerate ICE contact or something to that degree. Not sure if the article was accurate or not as I cannot locate it to share. One would think a war ship could tolerate a little hull bumping in my eyes, but what can you expect from an Obama era creation? I guess we can expect a freeze ray to be the next secret weapon against our Navy soon!
This is a special purpose built as in its description, built light for speed and maneuverability. It also employs water jets for propulsion which could be damaged from ice ingestion.
Designed I believe in Perth, Western Australia, or at least a derivative of their design?
Can it withstand a tugboat pushing on the hull?
Yes as there are pictures of it being re-positioned by tugs. A big difference between a broad area on a tug designed for pushing and sharp ice.
The Marinette Marine steel monohull has no problem with tug boats. The aluminum hull trimaran made by Austal USA is a different story.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2016/10/06/tug-collides-with-lcs-montgomery-cracks-the-hull/
The hull of the monohull type of LCS is steel, but very thin. The superstructure is aluminum. The other kind of LCS, the trimaran, is all aluminum. Neither is capable of operating with ice around.
The USS Littlerock (LCS 9) has a steel monohull with an aluminum superstructure. Having the aluminum superstructure in contact with sea ice would be a bad thing. The US Navy began botching up the design of the LCS around the year 2000, years before the Obama Administration had the opportunity to foster this waste of displacement on our sailors.
The fact is that most warships have zero icebreaking capability and carefully stay away from heavy ice. They are much too lightly built and have a completely unsuitable hull form. The Soviet navy actually managed to get three destroyers intact through the Northeast Passage from the Pacific to Murmansk with strong icebreaker support in the summer of 1942. It has been regarded as a remarkable feat of seamanship ever since.
Where is the USS Burton Island when you need here?
I have fond memories of building that model back in the early 70’s… Not sure if she was taken out by BB gun or firecrackers.
“Not sure if she was taken out by BB gun or firecrackers.”
Ah yes, the blessings and fun of youth!
The “toys” I have now would obliterate the thing in one shot…not quite as fun…
Up until around 50 years ago, wooden ships were preferred for Antarctic exploration, because the tensile strength of the timber resists being crushed by surrounding ice, to a point.
Any ship built for light weight, high speed [40 knots is HIGH speed] maneuvering is certainly NOT designed to push through much ice, even if the iced has been broken up. Ice is incredibly abrasive and sharp. Many many holes would be torn and ripped in the hull at and below the waterline before much progress was made..
I suspect that the ship was caught in the seaway, not the channel to Montreal. I write as a nearby resident of Saint John, New Brunswick, which had a very active winter port (the water never freezes) until icebreakers were positioned on St. Lawrence River to keep the channel clear to Montreal. We are not happy, but this is the way it has been for decades.
She’s in port…
https://weather.com/news/news/2018-01-22-uss-little-rock-stuck-in-montreal-ice
Buffalo New York is on Lake Ontario across from Cobourg Ontario.
The commissioning ceremony took place at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, where CL-92/CLG-4 USS Little Rock is a museum ship.
Her departure from the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park was delayed by weather conditions on Lake Erie.
So it cannot be Buffalo New York
No, Buffalo NY is a port on Lake Eire able to receive and load large, deep-ocean ships via the St Lawrence Seaway and Welland canal (and its locks) to get around the Niagara Falls. It can also handle the intra-Lake steamers coming east from Lake Eire and the Detroit bypass canals.
True, it is also a point of connection to the Eire Canal – which, after all, is why it is a port about to receive and off-load Lake steamers.
Sorry my error I mixuped Buffalo and Roghester
Is there really a difference?
😎
I love the new unit of weight: “weighs 15 tons more than the Statue of Liberty”. Is the weight of the Statue of Liberty well known? That sounds rather like one the BBC’s standard units.
I meant to calculate her displacement in Olympic size swimming pools… 😉
3,400 tons = 1,388 Olympic size swimming pools.
But how many Sydney Harbours?
Give it in Manhattan inches.
Depending on the shape of the glass, a couple of inches would be all it takes.
How many would fit into Wales ?
About a St Paul’s Cathedral’s worth of hydrogen bombs between Mt. Everest and the moon.
204 metric tonnes for the statue- but the second article reports 3400 tonnes for the ship.
A sceptic mind smells “fake news”
3,400 tons is fully loaded… https://usslittlerocklcs9.org/the-ship/
3,000 tons of aluminum & steel…
…provide more horsepower than:
You left out how many Dodge Challenger Demons?
🙂
Impressive turbo-pumps until you realize that one SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine) pumped out the equivalent of the entire ship’s compliment and the SSTS (Space Shuttle Transportation System) had 3 of those engines!
To be fair, it’s a naval vessel and wasn’t designed with the intention to reach escape velocity. ‘:)
It is as long as the height of a wind turbine, but has the power of 40.
Having its home port in Mayport, Florida is probably a good idea.
Crew is singular. There is only one crew, but it is composed several members. Likewise “team” is singular.
Correct.. but there is no “I” in team.
The Giants is dead.
There is no “I” in team, but there is an “m” and an “e” and they spell me.
The Enemies Assisting Me
I can assure all of you that the crew of Little Rock will not only not suffer the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune, being stuck in Montreal for the winter, but also will find themselves with plenty of things to do, including making acquaintances with local natives and learning to speak Quebecois, a language foreign to them, as well as learning to tolerate the strange food items presented to them by local natives of the area.
You should have some sympathy for them, at least until ice-out occurs. if only the Coasties had sent their icebreaker down that way a little sooner….. Such a burden as these sailors will have to bear! I weep for them… mostly because I never had a cold climate duty station until the Navy sent me to Great Lakes, and the barracks was NOT the best thing ever.
Will the crew have to stay on the ship, or have they been given warmer quarters for the duration?
The crew has to stay on ship.
Brrr.
Montreal also has lots of strip clubs, which I hear sailors are fond of.
They will be like the Bounty crew after Tahiti!
And don’t leave out the sailors admiring the picturesque pomp of the natives’ dress and accoutrements. (There’s a mangled quote in that, but from what?)
Let the hockey lessons begin!
clearly the USN did not obey Obummer’s orders to inject global warming climate change planning into their manuals of war
They have gotten to the future tropics ahead of the pirates! Very clever.
Montreal will be well protected from Somali Pirates this winter. Americans…not so much.
At least the ship is safe in port. Some Navy ships have not fared well in restricted waters recently.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/photos-freighter-stuck-in-ice-in-st-lawrence-seaway#gs.iNqMX8w
Surely it is only a few days before the long promised rise in sea levels means the ship will be able to travel over what was yesterday land…?
What! The Canadians are holding that ship hostage. Is this part of the NAFTA negotiations or something even more sinister?
My sources tell me that Canada is also preparing to send in its tank and elite Special Gender Force to surround this trapped ship. They claim that they don’t need more troops for this because diversity is their strength.
Turdeau is planning on using it as a ‘refugee’ rapid transit ferry.
+10
“Repel boarders, starboard!”
Given how foolish the USN has been to let everything run so late in the year, I find the comments here insufficiently derisive. How about demanding the sacking of whichever idiot said yes to the timetable?
The USS “Little Rock” is a good name for the ship and a warning to the crew to keep an eye on the weather when at sea.
USS Little Stuck?
USS Little Help?
‘And I know I ain’t going nowhere.’
Stevie Wonder
We hear about the fight against climate change, and what could be better than a warship to take up that fight?
When a warship could not win the war, i wonder if we should surrender and let the climate do what it does, and just get used to the climate/weather.
All that’s needed now is for the hull to undergo a ductile/brittle transition and crack up owing to the global warming-induced cryogenic temperatures. Marvellous.
Oddly enough, the Gulf of St Lawrence DID freeze up at about the same day as usual this past winter.
And, to be honest about it, the Gulf of St Lawrence (the outlet of the St Lawrence River into the North Atlantic between Newfoundland and the Canadian mainland), has had lower sea ice levels than those originally measured back in 1979-1981. The long-term “official” 30 year average of 1981-2010 sea ice area are larger than the recent daily averages of 2016 and 2017.
But, the Gulf of St Lawrence melted out far, far later in both 2016 and 2017 than in ANY prior year.
(On the other side of the world, BOTH the Sea Of Okhotsk AND the Bering Sea set new satellite era records by NOT melting out completely in either summer 2016 and summer 2017. For every prior year, both sea ice regions melted out completely over the summer. This year, for the first time ever, we could see not only multiple-year (thicker) sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea, but three-year thick sea ice. )
Hudson Bay, kilometers north of the trapped ship, Hudson Bay is also seeing increased sea ice areas in December 2017-Janaury 2018 compared to previous years. Hudson Bay sea ice minimums in late summer 2016 and late summer 2017 more closely approximated previous years’ daily values though.
That is almost certainly junk data. The sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea are always ice-free in summer. Automatically generated satellite data always has problems with imperfect land masks and tend to count small islands as “ice” in summer. The same thing often happens with the Baltic which is even (sort of) bathable in summer.
from tty
In response, this from the NSIDC about their data.
Go argue with the NSIDC. It’s their spreadsheets. Their data. Their averages.
True, the NSIDC do NOT record the small ice areas of the Baltic due to its island reflections from the land around that little area. However, just like every year since 1979, the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Hudson Bay and gulf of St Lawrence are monitored and recorded each day. In fact, because the NSIDC does “mask out” parts of the Gulf of St Lawrence each summer because it has historically melted out each summer, it too may have have sea ice remnants still frozen over the 2016 and 2017 summer melt seasons that were blanked over and deleted. The other three regional sea ice area were NOT blanked out, WERE surveyed, and WERE recorded with sea ice remaining through the summer. I did not expect that news, but will report it as discovered. (At least, until the NSIDC removes it.)
And, for the past two years of summer 2016 and 2017, all four regional sea ice records down below latitude 60 north show ominous signs of increasing sea ice area in their summer minimum levels, their 2014-2015 summer average areas, their 2016-2017 summer sea ice averages, or their individual Dec 2017-Jan 2018 records. My words stand on the NSIDC data as written. Total Arctic sea ice area ARE lower the past years from their record high 1981-2010 averages, but those averages are only half of the 70 year sea ice oscillation.
I sure hope the SS Little Rock is sufficiently equipped to fight climate change.
They will get an excellent opportunity to check the onboard climate/heating systems. And other systems. Electronics and hydraulics sometimes misbehave when it gets really cold.
“Littoral Combat Ship”
That name will get someone in trouble.
Yet Frigid!
Literally.
Of course, this was the sort of unexpected weather we can expect due to climate change.
Are some guys telling me the New York harbor is closed ? Please get real.
You have to go through the seaway to get to New York.
Pleaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
The ship started out from a shipyard in Wisconsin on Lake Michigan. She sailed from there to Buffalo NY, transiting Lake Huron and Lake Eerie. She then crossed Lake Ontario, entered the Saint Lawrence River and made a port call in Montreal. This is where the ship is stranded.
The only navigable route from Wisconsin, Buffalo and Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean is through the Great Lakes and/or Saint Lawrence Seaway.
Then down the St-Lawrence to the Atlantic ocean and New York.
She’s not going to New York City. Her destination is Mayport, Florida.
She was launched from a Wisconsin shipyard on Lake Michigan, commissioned at a ceremony in Buffalo NY on Lake Erie and then made a port call in Montreal on the Saint Lawrence River. The rapid onset of winter ice in the Saint Lawrence Seaway has stranded her in Montreal.
When the ice clears, she will head to her home port in Mayport FL.
No surprise, its just someone believing all the Global Warming hype…
Navy “You Cant Handle the TRUTH!!”