The colder-than-average winter over some parts of the arctic has yielded an increase in new sea ice area, but wait a minute, the older (perennial) sea ice that lasts for several years has continued to decrease, according to NASA researchers.

NASA microwave data indicates that perennial sea ice currently covers less than 30% of the Arctic, compared to 50-60% in the recent past.

Very old sea ice that remains in the Arctic for at least 6 years covered 20% of the Arctic area back in the mid to late 1980's, but this winter that figure is down to just 6%.

The maps below shows the decrease in older sea ice by comparing the average February conditions from 1985-2000 with February of 2008. The image is courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, says that this winter the ice cover is much thinner overall and thus in a more vulnerable state heading into the summer melt season.

This month, satellite data showed the maximum sea ice extent slightly increased by 3.9 percent over that of the previous three years, but it is still below the long-term average by 2.2 percent. Increases in ice extent occurred in areas where surface temperatures were colder than the historical averages. At the same time, as a result of the export of ice from the Arctic, the area of perennial ice decreased to an all-time minimum, according to the NASA article.

On a side note, I got back from Indiana a couple of days ago to get the kids back to school and get some work in at the house and at AccuWeather, but I will be driving back out to Indiana once again Thursday to be with my wife and new daughter into next week. Since the hospital and the location we are staying at does not have any wireless it will make it very difficult for me to post, but I can check in on the comments from time to time using the ancient hospital computer. Jesse and Paul will continue to tag team with additional posts into next week and I am very thankful for their tremendous help. In addition to the above post, I will try to do a couple more before I leave. Hopefully, the whole family can be back together in a couple of weeks. Regards, Brett.