All Climate Events

Wednesday, May 15, 2019. 12:00PM. Webinar: Causes and implications of record low sea-ice extent in the Bering Sea in 2018. Phyllis Stabeno, PMEL. Sponsored by NOAA. More information here.

The winter of 2018 had record breaking low sea ice extent. Sea ice arrived late due to warm southerly winds in November. More typical northerly winds in December and January advanced the ice, but strong, warm southerlies in February and March forced the ice to retreat once again. The cold pool (shelf region with bottom water < 2°C) was the smallest on record. Ice extent in winter of 2019 was very similar to that of 2018. Thus, there have been two consecutive, record-breaking low ice years in the Bering Sea. The lack of ice impacted the ecosystem from the timing of the spring phytoplankton/ice-algal blooms to fish and marine mammal distributions.