Arctic Ice Shrinks to Record Winter Low as Earth Heats Up (2)

The Arctic Ocean likely had the smallest winter ice cover in 47 years of satellite records this season, with just 5.53 million square miles of sea ice covering the region at its peak on March 22.

That’s 510,000 square miles less than the median coverage at other March peaks between 1981 and 2010, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder — a reduction equivalent to an area larger than Peru.

Arctic winter ice typically reaches its broadest expanse in March, after which it begins a slow melt over the spring and summer months, shrinking ...