June sees another record low for Arctic sea ice

This NASA satellite imagery shows the surface ice melt as of June 28. The blue-green areas indicate pronounced surface ponding over the Canadian Archipelago. (IMAGES COURTESY OF NASA)

The month of June marked another record low for Arctic sea ice extent — that’s despite a slower than normal rate of ice melt in the first half of the month.

The United States-based National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice averaged about 10.6 million square kilometres in June, the lowest for that month in its satellite record, which dates back to 1979.

June’s ice loss began slowly; between June 4 and 14, the Arctic Ocean lost only 37,000 square kilometres of ice each day, NSIDC said July 6, while ice loss quickened in the last half of June to an average of 74,000 sq km lost each day.

The slow melt in early June was a result of a change in atmospheric circulation over the Arctic Ocean, which shifted from high surface pressure mid-month to a low pressure pattern generally associated with more cloud cover and lower air temperatures.

So far in 2016, March has been the only month that has not set a new record low for Arctic-wide sea ice extent.