Respectfully disagree. The absorbed energy is unseen, increased atomic vibration.  Only when the ice has absorbed the required total energy is when it melts. Unmelted ice has a thermal conductivity coefficient too, as linked here:

http://tinyurl.com/lkwrg

The colder the ice: the faster it absorbs heat.  It is all very complex, way above my limited understanding.  Ongoing research is trying to get a better handle on this:

http://www.usap.gov/scienceSupport/sciencePlanningSummaries/2003_2004/indiv_projs/O253.htm

I assume supercomputer modeling is required to adjust for all the inter-related physical effects of solar radiation, albedo reflectivity, air & water thermal currents, snow insulation, glacial flow rates, etc.... on & on & on.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Your last paragraph is a better and more concise wording of what I was trying to express--Thxs

I have been trying to google more info on this phenomenon, to get a better handle on just how close we are to an ever-increasing number of cascading inflection points, but it is frustrating because many technical reports are behind paywalls.  Makes one wonder if the critical data is top secret-- that would explain why the milgov is trying to muzzle James Hansen and other scientists.  Who knows?

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Addendum re ice melting:

One thing I perhaps wasn't too clear on is that as you start adding heat to ice, it will gradually and very linearly starting increasing in temperature all the way up the melting point of 32 degrees F.

But then something odd happens: the temperature stops climbing and becomes sort of stuck at 32 degrees for a period of time. The reason is that this is the phase change point, where the solid water absorbs heat to become liquid water.

However, when the ice does finally melt, it does not suddenly release energy and steeply rise in temperature. No, the water from the freshly melted ice  is but a fraction of a degree over 32 degrees. Thus, you can have both water and ice at 32 degrees: it just depends on which direction you're coming from.

Of course once the ice has melted, if heat is still being applied, the liquid water will continue aborbing heat and gaining in temperature in a very linear fashion, until you reach the boiling point, at which time the same sort of pause in temperature rise occurs, as the liquid water absorbs enough heat to cause vaporization (i.e., the 'heat of vaporization').