Strongest Arctic cyclone on record led to surprising loss of sea ice

A warming climate is causing a decline in sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, where loss of sea ice has important ecological, economic and climate impacts. On top of this long-term shift due to climate change are weather events that affect the sea ice from week to week. The strongest Arctic cyclone ever observed poleward of 70 degrees north latitude struck in January 2022 northeast of Greenland. A new analysis led by the University of Washington shows that while weather forecasts accurately predicted the storm, ice models seriously underestimated its impact on the region's sea ice. The study , published in October in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, suggests that existing models underestimate the impact of big waves on ice floes in the Arctic Ocean. -The loss of sea ice in six days was the biggest change we could find in the historical observations since 1979, and the area of ice lost was 30% greater than the previous record,- said lead author Ed Blanchard-Wrigglesworth , a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW. -The ice models did predict some loss, but only about half of what we saw in the real world.