Title: In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action | NOAA Climate.gov
Headings: In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action
In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action
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The way sea ice used to be
Changes in sea ice lead to local climate change
Climate consequences for people, livelihoods, and property
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Content: climate change is happening—right now—in obvious and dramatic fashion. The way sea ice used to be
Even before the climate changes of the past decade, sea ice near Barrow has rarely been a solid, unbroken sheet stretching to the limitless horizon. Even during the winter, some ice would be grounded in shallow waters near the shore, but farther out, long breaks would develop in the floating ice as winds and ocean currents push and pull at it. These areas of open water, called leads, are favorite places for sea mammals to congregate, as they provide areas to surface and breathe and to haul out and feed. For Iñuipat hunters, it is this access to sea mammals that has made the northwest coast of Alaska a favored living area for a very long time. Prior to about 2000, the typical summer at Barrow would find sea ice lingering into late June or early July. From then on, the ice would melt at an increasing rate and be pushed to and fro by the wind. Usually there was a period from early August until sometime in September when the sea near Barrow would be largely ice-free. However, the main ice pack was rarely more than 150 miles offshore at the end of summer, and by sometime in October, cooling temperatures and autumn storms would typically return the sea ice to Barrow. Probabilities that the ice edge in mid-September would be no farther from shore than the lines shown, based on data from 1953-1981.