Maximum Arctic sea ice extent at record low

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

The Arctic sea ice cover has reached its maximum extent for this winter, with the lowest extent recorded since satellite recording of the ice cover began 47 years ago, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported. The ice cover appeared to have reached a maximum extent of 5.53 million square miles on March 22, NSIDC said.

(See map in the online issue PDF)

This year's maximum fell 506,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average level, NSIDC said. The previous lowest maximum extent was observed on March 7, 2017, and was 31,000 square miles greater than this year's maximum. NSIDC also commented that the date at which the winter maximum extent has happened has varied significantly over the years, being observed at dates ranging from Feb. 24 to April 2.

Low extents of seas ice persisted around most of the Arctic during the 2024 to 2025 winter season, NSIDC said. In particular, the Gulf of St. Lawrence remained virtually ice free, while Russia's Sea of Okhotsk, to the northeast of Japan, had substantially lower than average sea ice cover. Bering Sea ice cover was low for much of the winter, but ice formation between late February and late March resulted in a late winter ice extent closer to average. Only the East Greenland Sea experienced a near average ice cover for most of the season.

NSIDC attributes this year's low ice extent to Arctic winter temperatures around 2 F to 4 F above average.

--Alan Bailey