Watch the video above: Animation from NASA illustrates the 2015 ice cover in the Arctic.
TORONTO – Though it was a cold winter for parts of Canada, it certainly wasn’t in the Arctic, where sea ice reached a new record low.
READ MORE: Antarctic sea ice reaches new record maximum
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder reported that the Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum on Feb. 25 coming in at 14.54 square kilometres. It was the lowest on satellite record and was 1.10 million square kilometres below the 1981 to 2010 average.
This year the ice grew by 9.91 million kilometres over the winter season, which was far less growth during the previous winter.
NSDIC believes that part of the reason for the slow ice growth was due to the jet stream which led to warm weather over the Pacific part of the Arctic which resulted in low sea ice extent in the Bering Strait and Sea of Okhotsk.
As well, temperatures around the Arctic at an altitude of 3,000 feet were several degrees above average — as much as eight to 10 C in some areas.
The agency did say, however, that based on upcoming weather patterns in the Bering Sea, there is a possibility of some further ice growth.
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