Annual sea ice extent for May below average, again

Arctic sea ice extent for May 2015 was 12.65 million square kilometers (4.88 million square miles). The pink line shows the 1981 to 2010 median extent for that month. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL SNOW AND ICE DATA CENTER)

It’s another month of decline for Arctic sea ice.

Arctic sea ice extent in May was 730,000 square kilometres below the 1981-2010 average for the month of May.

That’s roughy an extent which is the same size as the landmass of Zambia, in southern African.

Such is the bleak monthly update from the Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center.

“Arctic sea ice extent average for May 2015 was the third lowest in the satellite record for the month,” the NSIDC report said.

Total sea ice extent for May declined at a “slightly faster” rate than the 1981 to 2010 average.

That pace of ice melt resulted because of an early sea ice melt in the Bering Sea — and persistent below-average ice conditions in the Barents Sea, north of Russia and Norway.

That happened last spring, too.

“Now that we are entering the month of June, the rate of ice loss is likely to quicken,” the NSIDC said.

“But how fast will depend on the weather conditions and the date of ice surface melt onset across the high Arctic.”

On the flip side of the world, in Antarctica, sea ice extents are at record highs.

“Beginning in late April, Antarctic sea ice extent surpassed the previous satellite-era record set in 2014, and for the entire month of May it has set daily record high ice extents,” the report said.

To read the entire report, click here.