Arctic Sea Ice Extent For May 3rd-Lowest On Record

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Sea-ice extent in May was the third-lowest recorded for the month since satellite measurement began in 1979, according to monthly data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a Colorado-based research institute.

The below-average extent for the month was partly a result of early melting in the Bering Sea as well as continued below-average amounts of ice in the Barents Sea. (See images below.) Sea-ice levels in other parts of Arctic were near average, according to the NSIDC. The record low for the month was set in May 2004, when sea-ice extent measured 12.58 million square kilometres, or some 70,000 square kilometres less than last month. The May 2014 ice extent was, at the time, the third-lowest for the month on record. The second-lowest extent for the month was recorded in 2006.

May’s average was affected by an accelerating pace of melting that saw ice extent dip to record-low daily levels by the end of the month. NSIDC explains that this was due to the emergence of openings in the ice pack, most notably in the southern Beaufort Sea, where wind patterns helped to push ice offshore, and in the Kara Sea.

Temperature conditions varied considerably during May. Over the central Arctic Ocean, the East Greenland Sea and the East Siberian and Laptev seas saw temperatures as much as 4 degrees Celsius below average. In Beaufort Sea and the Barents and Kara seas, temperatures were as high as 8 degrees Celsius above average.

EDIT

http://arcticjournal.com/climate/1645/third-lowest-may-sea-ice-extent