Graph shows hot spot over the Arctic during summer of 2007
Source: NSIDC

It may be the ‘Perfect Melt.’

It’s also a harbinger for a fall storm catastrophe in Alaska Native villages like Shishmaref and Kivalina, as well as more bad ecological news for ice-loving walrus, seals and polar bears.

A vast chunk of frozen Arctic Ocean got consumed this summer by near-record summer heat, lots of blazing sunshine and a persistent high pressure circulation that pushed floes away from the coast.

New data and vivid charts posted on-line by the National Snow and Ice Data Center show the polar ice cap shrank at an unprecedented rate during a two-week period in June and July — losing an ice-covered habitat as large as Kansas every single day.

“Taken together, the rapid sea ice losses that we’ve seen in June and July can partly be explained from the effects of this “triple whammy” “, the NSIDC reported in its Aug. 14 dispatch. “It was warm; atmospheric circulation pushed ice away from the coast; and skies have been fairly clear.”

The result? The Arctic ice cap has never been so small by this date in August, at least during the three decades with satellite coverage.

“Arctic sea ice extent in 2007 is on pace to set a new record minimum that could be substantially below the 2005 record,” the NSIDC concluded.


The NSIDC countdown to the ice minimum contains a extraordinary collection of graphs and charts, transforming the abstract rates and percentages into dramatic visuals.

Graphs shows Arctic sea ice declining faster in 2007 than ever before
Source: NSIDC

The most alarming graphic tracks ice extent by date, and compares 2007 to previous record years. If the stock market followed a similar trend line, we’d all be kissing our retirements goodbye.

As the NSIDC reports the meltdown in almost real time, it’s important to remember the real cost of ice loss to Arctic people and wildlife. Polar bears experience shrinking ice cover as a direct loss of habitat — making it much more difficult for them to find food and den sites. In some ways, its comparable to clear-cutting brown bear habitat and leaving empty grassland.

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A Shishmaref house topples
Shismaref Relocation Committee

Alaska Natives who live along the Arctic Coast experience shrinking ice as a food-gathering catastrophe. All the species that hug the ice edge have moved, in some cases hundreds of miles. Traveling across the ice becomes ever more dangerous, with rotten floes and more open leads.

With the ice cap so far off shore, massive fall storms can build high waves over unprecedented fetches, creating surf that hammers the fragile barrier islands where Shishmaref and Kivalina people make their homes. If such storms hit during high fall tides, houses flood and roads crumble.

Check out this Shishmaref slide collection of past storms for a preview of what’s looming.