30 September 2014
Arctic Sea Ice Sixth Lowest on Record
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that the area of Arctic sea ice fell to approximately five million square kilometres this year, the lowest of the year and the sixth lowest on record, which reinforces the downward trend in Arctic ice extent.

Wmo25 September 2014: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that the area of Arctic sea ice fell to approximately five million square kilometres this year, the lowest of the year and the sixth lowest on record, which reinforces the downward trend in Arctic ice extent.

This low was reached on 17 September 2014. WMO indicated that, while falling temperatures and earlier sunsets will likely lead to an increase in ice extent through autumn and winter, wind pattern shifts or a late season melt could still cause the ice extent to fall even lower.

This year’s minimum was 1.61 million square kilometers above the 2012 record minimum extent and 1.20 million square kilometers below the 1981 to 2010 average minimum. In both 2012 and 2007, the two years with the lowest levels of ice extent, extreme weather events led to significant decreases in sea ice. As such events were largely absent in 2014, the report concludes that a long-term decrease in Arctic sea ice is due to climate change, with Arctic warming occurring twice as fast as the global average.

Meanwhile, in the Antarctic, sea ice has surpassed over 20 million square kilometers for the first time in the past 35 years; however, WMO notes it is too soon to say whether the annual maximum has been reached. Nonetheless, given the differing geographical and meteorological circumstances of the two regions, the sea ice situations cannot be compared.

The international scientific community is working to determine possible explanations for the expanding Antarctic sea ice, including that changing wind currents and rising meltwater could have triggered the growth.

The findings reported by WMO come from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center and the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. [WMO Press Release]