Arctic Sea Ice Maximum 2/15 - 15 Days Earlier Than 30-Year Average From Satellite Data
The melt season for Arctic sea ice is underway after the annual maximum extent was reached late last month. Sea ice extent reached its annual maximum on Feb. 25, 15 days earlier than the 1981-2010 average date and one of the earliest dates for that milestone in the four-decade satellite record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported on Tuesday. Thats certainly unusually early, said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze.
There were only two years where annual maximums happened earlier: 1987 and 1996, both with maximum extents reached on Feb. 24. That makes Feb. 25 the second-earliest date for the annual record and it makes 2022 the second year hitting that mark; in 2015, the maximum extent was also reached on Feb. 25. Past experience has shown that an early start to the melt season does not necessarily set up a low September minimum, Serreze said. Thats contrary to previous assumptions that the end-of-winter condition of the ice tells you a lot about September, he said. Weve learned that it doesnt.
Rather, the summer melt and fall minimum are heavily dependent on weather, he said. Last years melt season was an example. We were on a record-low pace for quite some time, and then the weather patterns turned around, he said. Thanks to cool and cloudy weather that arrived in late summer, the 2021 minimum extent wound up as the 12th lowest in the satellite record.
This years sea ice maximum was the 10th lowest on record, according to the NSIDC. That puts it within the long-term trend, as described in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations 2021 Arctic Report Card, of dramatic losses for the annual minimums and slight losses for the annual maximums. All 10 of the lowest annual extent maximums have been posted since 2006, according to the NSIDC.
EDIT
https://www.arctictoday.com/arctic-sea-ice-reached-its-maximum-extent-at-a-near-record-early-date/?wallit_nosession=1