Canadian Arctic Storm Surges Growing In Intensity For 150 Yrs; Sharpest Spike Spike Since 1980

Rising temperatures are shrinking Arctic sea ice, and in Canada’s Northwest Territories, that means more and stronger storm surges, according to a new study. An analysis of lakebed sediments from one section of the outer Mackenzie Delta shows surges have become more intense and frequent over the past 150 years as the region has warmed and ice has retreated.

The sharpest increase in surge activity came after 1980, in concert with the steepest declines in Arctic sea ice cover, concludes the research, which has been published online by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“We’re losing Arctic sea ice, and it’s getting stormier up there,” said lead author Jesse Vermaire, who conducted the research as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Carleton University geography professor Michael Pisaric. “You’re getting conditions that are ripe for these rare events — for these really large storms to impact coastal regions there.”

The region’s vulnerability to storm surge is likely to increase as the climate warms and the area covered by sea ice shrinks further, he said. The area covered by Arctic sea ice reached a new yearly low last summer, shattering the record set in 2007 and continuing a decades-long decline.

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