Second biggest Arctic thaw on record - 23rd October 2020

Spiralling temperatures in the Arctic circle have shrunk this summer’s ice sheet to its second lowest extent on record.

Researchers at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder announced that satellites recorded this year’s sea ice minimum at 3.74 million square kilometres on 15th September.

Although Arctic ice undergoes seasonal patterns of change, thinning and shrinking in summer before thickening and expanding during winter; research shows summer ice cover has dropped markedly year on year - a bleak measure of the impact of global warming.

Without the ice sheet present to bounce solar radiation back into space, it becomes trapped in the oceans; heating the Arctic waters and exacerbating the climate crisis.

Stemming from human emissions, climate change is having a devastating effect on the region, sparking Arctic forest fires and heatwaves in Siberia which have further intensified the summer thaw.

The pace of Arctic temperature rises is three times that of anywhere else on the planet, meaning an ice-free Arctic may well have become a reality by 2035.