Weather Tracker: Arctic Winter Sea Ice at Basso this year, scientists say | Sea ice

Winter marine ice in Arctic According to NASA and National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States, it reached a minimum record. The annual peak, recorded on March 22, was the lowest since the registers began 47 years ago, with the sea ice that covered only 5.53 square meters – about 1.1 million square miles less than last year and 30,000 square miles below the minimum previous in 2017. The Gulf of St Lawrence does not have almost the sea, while the Okhotsk sea has experienced in particular the extension of the medium ice.

At the end of January, the extension of marine ice in the Arctic decreased unexpectedly, losing an area of ​​the dimensions of Italy (over 115,000 square miles). This can be attributed to the cyclones that push the southern winds into the Barents and the seas of Bering, causing ocean waves that broke and dissolved the thin ice on the edge of the glacial cap. Temperatures up to 12C above normal were recorded between northern Greenland and the North Pole.

The extension of the Arctic sea ice will be expected to continue its decline in the coming years due to a more hot combination of temperatures, hot seas, break the wind and thinner ice – all exacerbated by the climatic crisis. Some climatic models suggest that the Arctic could experience summers without ice before 2050, although these projections remain uncertain.

Elsewhere, last weekend marked the beginning of a prolonged and widespread risk of serious thunderstorms in the central and oriental parts of the United States, with this threat that continued for most of the next week. On 29 and 30 March there was a serious time from the large lakes in Texas, with several tornadoes reported, together with gusts of wind with straight lines up to 96 miles per hour (154 km/h) and a 3 -inch hail. This initial bad weather will influence the eastern parts of the country on Monday.

The second attack of bad weather will be developed through the central plains, since a low level of higher level that moves east interacts with the border between hot and humid air in the southern states and cold air through the North. Tuesday’s thunderstorms will be developed from Minnesota to Texas, with the risk that he moves slowly east during the second half of the week. Storms will bring further possibilities to damage twenty, very large hail and tornado, some of which have the potential to be significant.

The slow progression towards the east of the storm system should have a further threat in the form of floods, with periods of heavy rain in some areas. The National Water Prediction Service provides for a considerable risk of floods in an area from Louisville to Little Rock, with 6-12 inches of rainfall expected in places this week.