If the atmosphere over the north pole never gets warmer than 30F. degrees why does the ice melt there?

Answer 1

because all the arctic ice is floating on water, so the bottom of the ice is touching water that is warmer than 32. the ice packs always break up at the end of summer, because the arctic just got through with six months of sun. now it is heading for six months of night time, and the ice pack will freeze up again. this is how it happens every year. you can start to worry when the ice pack starts breaking up in march, not in september

Answer 2

Both the Arctic and the Antarctic cover large areas. Deep in the interiors of these places the temps can remain bitterly cold all year round - especially in Antarctica where some places have average temps of -45°C and rarely get above -30°C.

The melting that's occuring isn't from the interiors of these places but around the edges. Slowly the Antarctic, Greenland and Arctic ice is being melted from the edges inward. It's happening for two reasons - the air temperatures are higher now than they used to be and the seas and oceans that surround these areas are also warming up.

There is melting at the North Pole and not so long back a British man went swimming there - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6899612.stm

Answer 3

It does get warmer than 30F. Always has. Its jsut doing it a lot more now with global warming.

Answer 4

Because Planet Venus, which is like a baby Sun is at its closest proximity to Planet Earth.
What is happening, is similar to a full moon, when the weather gets hot or warmer and the tide is high.
It is really a matter of gravity and Venus' hot temperature. It really is not Al Gore's unsubstatiated claims of Global warming. (maybe partially but not all of his claims.)