Sea Ice

“This is a very new type of model which simulates each piece of the ice flow, like little polygons moving around,” Zhang said. “So, when I first saw that model, I said, ‘Oh, this is really cool. It can be really useful for coastal communities to get the sense of how the ice moves around.’”

This fall, ice coverage was at a near-historic low. Now, as winter sets in, local observers and researchers believe fall storms may have caused much thinner ice conditions than normal.

The sharp decline in the season length can be directly linked to the decline in sea ice due to a warming climate. That’s the finding of a new collaborative study conducted by the Native Village of Kotzebue and the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has found evidence that warming waters outside the Arctic are impacting sea ice as well.

One researcher says now is a key time for studies on Arctic ocean conditions, before the hotter temperatures become the new normal.

While Southcentral and Southeast Alaska continue to have colder than normal temperatures this week, the holiday season cold snap that hit Western and Northwestern Alaska has faded away, bringing a more normal forecast for the region.