London: Ice covered the smallest extent of ocean in the Arctic for a second year in a row this winter after “crazy” warm temperatures stopped large swaths of sea from freezing over.
At its maximum, sea ice covered 14.52 million square kilometers of the northern ocean on 24 March, less than last year’s record of 14.54 million square kilometers, the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder said in a statement.
“I’ve never seen such a warm, crazy winter in the Arctic,” Mark Serreze, the center’s director, said in a statement. “The heat was relentless.” Temperatures were as much as 6 degrees Celsius above average between December and February in the region, according to the statement.
Shrinking sea ice in the Arctic has been one of the clearest indicators of the impacts of climate change. The NSIDC’s scientists say the region may experience ice-free summers by 2030, which could contribute to rising sea levels and changing temperatures in the northern hemisphere.
“The Arctic is in crisis,” said Ted Scambos, NSIDC lead scientist. “Year by year, it’s slipping into a new state, and it’s hard to see how that won’t have an effect on weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.”
The center said it would provide a detailed analysis of this winter’s ice coverage in early April. Bloomberg
