New Sea Ice Low

As the world’s warming increases, the sea ice naturally covers less.

“Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record low for January at 1.25 million square miles, which is about 700,000 square miles below the 1991-2020 average. This January’s extent was roughly 210,000 square miles smaller than the previous record low from January 2017.” – NOAA

That 700,000 square miles of lost sea ice is larger than Alaska (570,641 square miles). That 210,000 square miles is more than any state except two. (Texas is 261,914 square miles.) We don’t see it because it is Antarctica, so it is even harder for people to understand how much ice is no longer forming despite it being the coldest place on the planet. Changes of this magnitude at such remote locations will be extremely difficult to recover from; and these changes should be expected to continue.