Arctic Sea Ice Maximum 2019

  • Released Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
  • Updated Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 at 12:13AM
  • ID: 4723

Animation of Arctic sea ice extent between its minimum on September 23, 2018 and its maximum on March 13, 2019.

After growing through the fall and winter, sea ice in the Arctic appears to have reached its annual maximum extent. The 2019 wintertime extent ties with 2007’s as the 7th smallest extent of winter sea ice in the satellite record, according to scientists at the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA.

On March 13, the extent of the Arctic sea ice cover peaked at 5.71 million square miles (14.78 million square kilometers). This winter’s maximum extent is 332,000 square miles (860,000 square kilometers) below the 1981 to 2010 average maximum – equivalent to missing an area of ice larger than the state of Texas.

Animation of Arctic sea ice extent between its minimum on September 23, 2018 and its maximum on March 13, 2019, no dates

Animation of Arctic sea ice extent between its minimum on September 23, 2018 and its maximum on March 13, 2019, no dates

Dates only

Dates only

Credits

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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