2025 Arctic Sea Ice Maxiumum

  • Released Thursday, March 27, 2025
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Winter sea ice cover in the Arctic was the lowest it’s ever been at its annual peak on March 22, 2025, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At 5.53 million square miles (14.33 million square kilometers), the maximum extent fell below the prior low of 5.56 million square miles (14.41 million square kilometers) in 2017.

In the dark and cold of winter, sea ice forms and spreads across Arctic seas. But in recent years, less new ice has been forming, and less multi-year ice has accumulated. This winter continued a downward trend scientists have observed over the past several decades.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
This page was last updated on Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM EDT.