Arctic sea ice hit a stunning new low in May

The latest figures from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) show that the average sea ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean in May was only 4.63 million square miles.

If it’s any consolation, this missing chunk is 224,000 square miles smaller than the previous low record for the month set in 2004.

“The current rate of sea ice loss, and the reduced thickness of large areas of the ice remaining, suggests that we may see yet another record minimum in summer sea ice extent this year”.

“I think people have a hard time getting a grasp on how big a loss this is”, NSIDC director Mark Serreze told Mashable in an interview.

Importantly for what the May record could mean for the summer sea ice minimum coming up in September, the NSIDC found that daily sea ice extents were two to four weeks ahead of the levels seen in 2012, when the existing September sea ice minimum was recorded.

In May, Arctic ice percentage reached the lowest level in years.

The phenomenon is fueled by a feedback loop where rising temperatures melt Arctic sea ice, which leaves dark open water that absorbs more warmth from the sun, thereby warming the Arctic even more. “We’ve never seen anything like this before”, he said.

When compared with the last few years, the ice extent in the first months of 2016 is the lowest.

The exceptionally low sea ice extent for May and the lowest Northern Hemisphere snow cover in April for 50 years is in line with long-term trends. While sea ice is thinner overall, with particularly negative anomalies in the Beaufort and Barents seas, ice thickness is a bit thicker in the East Siberian Sea area.

“When the sea ice retreats, it changes the whole situation”. In March, the only month not to set a record low this year, sea-ice extent was the second lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979. Data published by NOAA this week showed that the average monthly level for Carbon dioxide in May was 407.7 parts per million, the highest level ever recorded.

Some Arctic animals might be able to take advantage of the early feast, but others, including migratory animals, may not arrive in time, creating a mismatch in supply and demand in the food web.

One extreme event that might have influenced this year’s low ice surface was El Niño. For a short period in December, sea ice at the North Pole was at or close to melting, with temperatures at least 20C above normal.

Scientists who made coring tests off Barrow in Alaska-which recorded the earliest ever spring melt in 78 years of record-keeping-report that where they would have expected thicknesses of up to 150 centimetres, they were recording depths of only 80 to 100 cm.

All of this has happened during a year that itself is blowing out old records for temperatures averaged across the globe.