Extreme North Pole Heat Contributing to Rapid Loss of Sea Ice

North Pole temperatures that have been 11 to 14 degrees F higher than normal, coupled with an early melting of sea ice and low snow cover in the Far North, have caused a swift retreat of sea ice this summer and could mean that the Arctic Ocean in 2011 will have the smallest sea ice extent ever recorded. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado (NSIDC) reported that as of July 17, sea ice covered 2.92 million square miles in the Arctic Ocean, 865,000 square miles below the 1979 to 2000 average. Sea ice extent is now lower than it was in mid-July 2007, which saw the record minimum set that year. The NSIDC attributed the accelerating sea ice loss to several factors: Above-average temperatures over much of the Arctic Ocean, a sea-ice melt season that began two weeks to two months earlier in much of the Arctic basin, and low snow cover over northern Eurasia, which further intensified regional warming.