Arctic sea ice hits second-lowest level on record

Arctic sea ice hits second-lowest level on record

Shrinking Arctic sea ice hits another low This year, Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest extent in more than 40 years of satellite measurements. Ice covered just 3.74 million square kilometres of Arctic waters at its annual summer minimum, reports the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In only one other year — 2012 — has the annual minimum dropped below four million square kilometres. The near-record low is representative of a worrying trend in which “weather that used to be considered extreme is becoming the norm”, says the NSIDC report. Nature | 3 min readReference: NSIDC report & Nature Climate Change paper