Cloudy, cool August restrains melt of Arctic sea ice

WASHINGTON -- Arctic sea ice this summer dropped to its eighth-lowest level on record, new federal data show.

That's far below average, but considerably above the record low set five years ago.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center said on Sept. 13, sea ice in the Arctic shrank to its smallest area of the season: 1.79 million square miles.

Data-center scientist Ted Scambos said the Arctic sea ice set a record for the smallest winter amount earlier this year, and it was close to 2012's record-low levels through the month of July.

But a cloudy and cooler-than-normal August kept melt to a minimum.

"Weather patterns in August saved the day," Scambos said.

This year's low is 610,000 square miles below the 30-year average but also 483,000 square miles above 2012's record low.

The data center uses satellite readings that go back to 1979.

Scambos said this year is clustered with several other recent years behind 2012.

He said this year's sea ice level fits with an overall steady decline over the decades, but one that varies in fits and starts. The latest findings do not mark a recovery from 2012, he said. Instead they suggest that 2012 was an outlier, with a combination of freak conditions that dropped levels lower than normal man-made global warming would cause, Scambos said.

"It's not going to be a staircase heading down to zero every year," Scambos said. "It's not the same as in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s."

"The Arctic will continue to evolve towards less ice," he said. "There's no dodging that."