Even as winter takes hold in the Arctic, sea ice there is growing sluggishly. In Antarctica, summer’s arrival has driven sea ice to near-record lows. Since September, the polar night of winter has been spreading steadily southward in the Arctic. But sea ice hasn’t been keeping pace.
During October, growth of the floating ice was held back by significantly warmer temperatures than average. All told, October saw the fourth lowest extent of Arctic sea ice for the month in records stretching back 46 years to 1979, according to the latest analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Including last month, the Arctic has lost an average of 31,000 square miles of sea ice every year during October, the NSIDC analysis found. Given this linear trend, October has seen the loss of 1.38 million square miles of sea ice since 1979 — an area roughly equal to five times the size of Texas. NSIDC researchers recently wrote:
“Arctic climate warming continues to lead an unfortunate path of change for the planet.”
It’s all part of what they described as “the new abnormal.”
The UN has put the World Water Day 2025 under the topic of Glacier Preservation. See here in our Blue News.
