Global Warming

Record Arctic Melt

The Arctic’s sea ice shrank to its second-lowest coverage since scientists began measuring it by satellite in the late 1970s.

The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre says the sea ice reached its summer minimum on Sept. 10, when it covered only 1.6 million square miles around the North Pole.

This virtually tied with the summer of 2007 for second place. The all-time minimum was reached in 2012 with only 1.3 million square miles of ice remaining on Sept. 17.