Lessons from Lewis Carroll

"In the midst of the word he was trying to say, in the midst of his laughter and glee,
he had softly and suddenly vanished away, for the Snark was a Boojum, you see."

A word of caution is in order. Arctic ice extent is a Boojum. Many climate skeptics are entirely thrilled at the March anomaly, and it's not irrelevant. But as Serreze is being forced to acknowledge prior anomalies, we should not forget that this is one as well. Just a few months ago, Arctic ice extent was running lower than ever for the date. Now it's the highest in years, but past experience says that there will faster melting through June, when the extent seems to be roughly the same every year, and what happens afterwards isn't much affected by what happened in March.

We're seeing an increase in Bering Sea ice. Elsewhere in the Arctic, temps are above normal but not enough to melt any of the solid cover. The Bering ice will soon melt and the other Arctic ice may be setting up for a serious decline as well. Those who trumpet the "return to normalcy" may wind up like the Baker.

Although maybe not. An odd event may represent a fundamental change in pattern, or it may just be odd. A real skeptic reserves judgment, even while perhaps hoping deeply for a colder Arctic ASAP.