Environment
Another Dismal Year for Arctic Sea Ice
The ice’s summer extent has tied for second-lowest in the modern record.
The Arctic’s sea ice has contracted to its smallest extent for 2016, and there’s some serious shrinkage on display. On September 10, the ice measured 1.6 million square miles which, at 911,000 short of the 1981–2010 average, makes it tied with 2007 as the second-lowest extent on the modern record.
The region’s sea ice contracts during the summer and packs it back on during the winter, although the long-term trend is more of the former and less of the latter. This year, it seemed poised for a comeback, with clouds obscuring sunlight during the normally melt-prone months of June and July. But then two large storms ripped across the Arctic, which seem to have contributed to an increased break-up and disappearance of ice.