Arctic sea ice had its weakest winter buildup since record-keeping began 47 years ago, a symptom of climate change that will have repercussions globally, scientists said Thursday. The Arctic reaches its maximum sea ice in March each year and then starts a six-month melt season. The National Snow and Ice Data Center said the peak measurement taken Saturday was 5.53 million square miles—about 30,000 square miles smaller than the lowest previous peak in 2017, the AP reports. That's a difference about the size of California.
Scientists said warming conditions in the Arctic—the region is warming four times faster than the rest of the world—affect weather elsewhere. Pressure and temperature differences between north and south shrink. That weakens the jet stream, that moves weather systems along, making it dip further south with cold outbreaks and storms that often get stuck and rain or snow more, according to the snow and ice center and Jennifer Francis, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod.
Julienne Stroeve, an ice scientist at the University of Manitoba, noted that of the smaller sea ice, it's not only that there's less of it. The remaining ice is thin enough for more of it to melt quickly this summer, Stroeve said. Melting Arctic sea ice—mostly in the summer—is making the polar bear population smaller, weaker and hungrier because they rely on the sea ice to hunt from, scientists said. And winter sea ice is especially important for fisheries and seal pups, ice data scientist Walt Meier said. The five lowest amounts for winter peak Arctic sea ice have been since 2015.
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