Feb 03, 2011

Arctic warmth: Sea ice at record low levels in January

While the USA shivers, the Arctic has been much warmer than average this winter.

Due to the warmth, the amount of sea ice coverage in the Arctic was at its lowest January level on record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported this week.

Arctic sea ice in January was measured at 5.23 million square miles, which was the lowest January ice extent since satellite records began in 1979. It was 19,300 square miles below the previous record low in 2006, and 490,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average.

Ice extent in January remained unusually low in Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait (between southern Baffin Island and Labrador), and Davis Strait (between Baffin Island and Greenland), according to the data center. Normally, these areas freeze over by late November, but this year Hudson Bay did not completely freeze over until mid-January. The Labrador Sea remains largely ice-free.

Air temperatures over much of the Arctic were 4 to 11 degrees F above normal in January. As in December 2010, the warm temperatures in January came from two sources: unfrozen areas of the ocean continued to release heat to the atmosphere, and the wind patterns accompanying the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation climate pattern brought warm air into the Arctic.

Polar bears and other species are struggling to survive as they lose the sea ice they need for hunting, resting and raising their young, the Center for Biological Diversity reports.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -january/1