May Arctic Sea Ice Sets Record Low For May; 4th Lowest Monthly Extent Ever
Arctic sea ice shrank to its fourth-lowest level in 50 years last month, setting a record low for the month of May and setting up conditions for what could become the smallest Arctic ice extent in history, according to National Snow and Ice Data Center data released Tuesday. “We didn’t just break the old May record, we’re way below the previous one,” NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said.
Compared to normal conditions, the Arctic ice cap was missing a Texas-sized slab of ice in May. It spread across 4.63 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and adjacent areas of the North Atlantic — an area 224,000 square miles smaller than the previous low record for the month set in 2004. May’s record low follows four previous monthly record lows set in January, February and April.
Temperatures averaged about 3°C (5°F) above normal across the Arctic Ocean this spring. The warmth made daily sea ice extents average about 232,000 square miles smaller than during any May in the 38 years scientists have been gathering data using satellites. Overall, it was the fourth-lowest sea ice extent in the 50-year record.
The Arctic, which saw unusually warm temperatures near-freezing during a severe storm in December, is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe as the climate changes. This year’s extreme El Nino may also have helped crank up the heat. Sea ice this year is melting at a pace two to four weeks faster than normal as pulses of warm air have been streaming into the Arctic from eastern Siberia and northern Europe and sea ice has retreated early from the Beaufort Sea. Barrow, Alaska, on the Beaufort Sea, recorded its earliest snowmelt in 78 years last month. Normally, snow begins to retreat in late June or July, but the snow began to melt May 13 — 10 days sooner than the previous record set in 2002.
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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-sea-ice-breaks-may-record-20415
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