Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook Archive

Near St. Lawrence Island

Close pack ice has consolidated along most of the northern coastline of St. Lawrence Island stretching 10 to 25 miles offshore. Beyond the pack ice lies an area of very open to open pack ice. Northerly flow has opened a polyna along the southern coastline of the island stretching 5 to 20 miles wide. Beyond the polyna lies a region of close pack ice. Shorefast ice is continuing to become further unstable.

Wales to Shishmaref

A polyna has opened off the west coast near Wales. Very close pack ice remains in much of the southern Chukchi Sea and is mobile...

Near St. Lawrence Island

A large polyna is open along the entire northern coastline of St. Lawrence Island, stretching from 5 to 15 miles wide near Gambell up to 25 miles wide near Savoonga. Beyond the polyna lies an area of close pack ice. The shorefast ice along the northern coastline is continuing to become more unstable. Southerly flow has consolidated the ice pack along the southern side of the island and closed most leads.

Wales to Shishmaref

Open water to very open pack is present from the western third of the Bering Strait stretching up into the southern Chukchi Sea...

Near St. Lawrence Island

A polyna remains along the northern coastline of St. Lawrence Island stretching from 3 to 9 miles in width. Beyond the northern coastline polyna is an area of close pack ice consisting of first year medium to new sea ice. Off to the east of the island is a large area of very open pack ice. The southern coastline of the island has filled in with close pack ice with the exception of the area from near Powooiliak Camp to near Silook Camp where a polyna has opened with a width of 2 to 15 miles.

Wales to Shishmaref

Open to very open pack ice is present...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Persistent southwesterly flow near St. Lawrence Island allowed close pack ice to fill in the polyna that was present along the southern coastline of the island last week. The southwesterly flow has also opened a polyna beyond the shorefast ice off the northern coastline stretching from just east of Gambell over to the eastern side of the island as seen in satellite imagery. The polyna is roughly 5 miles wide near Savoonga and up to 25 miles wide near Lietnik along the northeastern coast of the island. Beyond the polyna lies a region of close pack ice.

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Near St. Lawrence Island

Persistent northerly flow near St. Lawrence Island has allowed compact pack ice to close in along the northern coastline, extending 25 to 35 miles from the shoreline. Beyond the compact pack ice to the north and northwest lies a large region of open pack ice stretching to the Russian coastline up to the north near the Bering Strait. Shorefast ice remains within the barrier islands along the southern shoreline of St. Lawrence Island with a large polyna extending up to 80 miles to the south. Low concentrations of new ice may be forming within the polyna due to the...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Cloud cover has been persistent over the Bering Strait region this week, providing a somewhat limited view of the sea ice near St. Lawrence, as seen in the false color image of the NASA MODIS satellite this week (pink colors highlighting clouds, bright blue highlighting sea ice). Minimal shorefast ice remains between Gambell and Savoonga and a polyna has formed off the northern coast between these two villages up to 10 miles wide. Beyond the northern coastline a polyna lies close first year pack ice. Shorefast ice remains within the barrier islands along the...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Shorefast ice between Gambell and Savoonga has broken off and can be seen on satellite images, in the ice pack north of Saint Lawrence Island. Stable shorefast ice along the northeast coast is limited to within 5 miles from the shoreline. The shorefast ice extending beyond this appears to thinning with breaks clearly visible along the outer edge. The remaining shorefast ice around the island extends 2 to 5 miles in most locations and appears stable along east and west facing coasts. Free-floating ice is most concentrated to the east of the island. Lower...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows the extensive sea ice surrounding St. Lawrence Island. Very close pack ice consisting of first year thin to first year thick ice has consolidated along the northern coastline of the island. It is likely that the ice in this offshore region has formed ridges while buckling due to the wind stress. It may be grounded in some locations. A narrow polyna, 4 to 7 miles wide, is present along the southern shoreline of the island, however due to the very cold temperatures areas of open water are refreezing rapidly with new and young ice forming...

Near St. Lawrence Island

The bay between Gambell and Savoonga has been compacted with first year thin to first year thick ice that has likely grounded in several locations. From Savoonga over to the eastern side of the island lies very close pack ice consisting of first year thin to first year thick ice. Beyond the shorefast ice from Gambell down the western side of the island lies a polyna (an area of open water surrounded by sea ice) up to 21 miles wide. Close pack ice lies beyond the polyna with new and young ice filling in between the floes. A polyna is also present beyond the...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery clearly shows the impacts of persistent northerly flow in the Bering Strait region this past week. Beyond the shorefast ice on northern coastline lies a highly consolidated region of pack ice that has most likely formed ridges as the first year thin to first year thick ice buckles under the wind stress. Northwesterly flow off the coast of eastern Siberia has formed a polynya stretching from beyond the shorefast ice of the Siberian coastline down to the western coast of St. Lawrence Island. A large polynya stretching up to 80 nm wide has formed...

St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows extensive sea ice surrounding St. Lawrence Island, however the shorefast sea ice area is limited this year compared with the shorefast sea ice extent in early April of 2012 and 2010. Northerly winds have closed in the polynya beyond the northern coastline shorefast ice edge with large floes of tightly packed sea ice. Off the northwest coast near Gambell lies a region of numerous thick broken floes with high concentrations of young and new ice filling in between the floes. Northerly flow has also opened the polynya off the southern and...

St. Lawrence Island

Major changes are occurring in the dispersion and melting of sea ice in the Bering Sea. The satellite imagery (below) shows that there are strips of sea ice south and west of St. Lawrence Island that extend back west to the Gulf of Anadyr. Less than 25% of the ice remains in the Gulf of Anadyr, and most of this is in the northwest corner of the bay. There are more strips of sea ice just northwest of St. Lawrence Island that are slowly drifting northward. Most of this ice is more than 25 miles offshore. There are still remnants of shorefast ice along the north shore...

St. Lawrence Island

A major melt-out has taken place over the last week. There are now a few major strings of sea ice that are located west and southwest of Gambell. A string of ice floes extends south from the southeast corner of St. Lawrence Island about 15 miles and then extends west back to the mouth of the Gulf of Anadyr. Although there are a lot of clouds in the satellite imagery they are transparent enough to see ice floes below. There is another stringer of ice floes extending northeast just west of Gambell, about 15-20 miles offshore. There is still a lot of ice against the...

St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows a lot of shorefast ice still in place around the island. A large number of ice floes of various sizes are present west of St. Lawrence Island, many of which are now coming from the Gulf of Anadyr. Heavy ice is still present east of the island as well. All of this ice is slowly drifting northward.

Wales to Shishmaref

Shorefast ice is still present off Wales and Shishmaref. Grounded ice off Point Prince of Wales is helping to hold the shorefast ice in off Shishmaref. There is a lot of open water in the Bering Strait with very scattered...

St. Lawrence Island

There is a heavy concentration of ice floes on the west and northwest corner of St. Lawrence Island (see satellite image). Much of this ice is coming out of the Gulf of Anadyr. Shorefast ice is still present along the north shore. Sea ice northwest of St. Lawrence is streaming northward.There is still a lot of sea ice 80 miles south of St. Lawrence Island.

Wales to Shishmaref

Ice floes continue to stream in a narrow band northward through the Bering Strait 25 miles offshore of Wales. Shorefast ice is still present along the shore (see satellite images)...

St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice continues to melt and drift slowly north. Satellite imagery shows that there is still extensive sea ice in the central Bering Sea near St. Matthew Island. This ice is expected to reach St. Lawrence Island in the next 10-14 days. Winds have been weak so that the ice movement is mostly from ocean currents. Sea ice continues to drift out of the Gulf of Anadyr. There are a lot of ice floes to the west of Gambell, but they are more than 15 miles offshore. Shorefast ice is disappearing in many places.

Wales to Shishmaref

There is a major concentration of...

St. Lawrence Island

Southerly winds the last few days have pushed the compact sea ice along the north shore of the island northward and there is now lots of open water between this pack and the shorefast ice. The shorefast ice between Gambell and Savoonga is breaking down. However, the shorefast ice east of Savoonga remains in place. Sea ice in the Gulf of Anadyr is beginning to drift northeastward into the western Bering Sea. There is a lot of open water both south and west of the island. Satellite imagery shows the presence of small floes drifting slowly northward west of Gambell....

St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice continues to break up south and west of St. Lawrence Island. Ice floes from very small to over 100 feet in diameter are found west of Gambell. Thirty miles west of Gambell there is very heavy pack ice still present. Sea ice remains compact against the north shore. There is a large lead between the east coast and the pack ice offshore (see the satellite images).

Wales to Shishmaref

There is now extensive open water west of Wales although shorefast ice is still present along the coast. Satellite images show the breakup of Bering Strait extending into...

St. Lawrence Island

Breakup is in earnest now in the Northern Bering Sea. Satellite imagery shows cloud formations called cloud streets (because they are long and narrow) that indicate the presence of lots of open water between the ice floes. This is especially the case for the waters south of the island and also west and northwest of Gambell. Compact ice continues to be present across the north shore of St. Lawrence Island although there are some leads forming.

Wales to Shishmaref

Breakup is also evident in the satellite imagery especially for the west portion of the Bering...

St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows that the sea ice continues to break up. There are now more open water leads and open water spaces south of St. Lawrence Island and what ice floes are present are now smaller than 900 feet in diameter near the shore. There is a lot more open water along the west coast of St. Lawrence Island near Gambell, where the ice floes near shore are also less than 900 feet in size with numerous smaller floes.

Shortfast ice still dominates the north shore of the island. Along the east coast, compact floes are present right up to the shore.

Wales...

St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows that the pack ice in the Bering Sea is beginning to break up in earnest. Persistent northerly winds have pushed the ice away from the coast, especially those shores facing south. There is also a lot of erosion of the shorefast ice in Powooiliak Bay to southeast Cape. The presence of cloud streets over the area indicates large open leads offshore. There is also breakdown of the shorefast ice along the west coast of the island. There are numerous broken floes (Qerngayaak) just west and...

St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows that the southerly winds over the Bering Sea region the last several days have caused the ice pack to fracture and break up in many areas. With the return of northerly winds the eastern portion of the polynya south of St. Lawrence Island has large areas of new and young ice with large floes embedded in it. There are large leads of open water and new and young ice along the edge of the shorefast ice. North of St. Lawrence the ice pack has become loose with more new and young ice present. However, with the return of northerly winds, the ice pack...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows extensive sea ice around St. Lawrence Island. Northerly winds have pushed the sea ice pack up against the north shore of St. Lawrence Island, and it is tightly packed against the shorefast ice. Satellite imagery and the sea ice models show that there has been a push of sea ice from the Bering Strait, southeastward and extending along the east coast of St. Lawrence Island, that has fractured into various sized floes. Just west of Gambell, there are numerous thick broken floes from very small to very large with lots of young and new ice...

St. Lawrence Island, Wales, and Shishmaref

The Northern Bering Sea is virtually sea ice free. There is a patch of floes about 2-3 miles in diameter 160 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island that is the last ice to come out of the Gulf of Anadyr. This ice patch is drifting slowly northeast and melting. There is still about 4 to 6 tenths concentration of shorefast ice east of Shishmaref. It appears some of this ice is grounded in place.

5-10 Day Forecast

A weak high pressure over the northern Bering Sea is slowly giving way to a deepening low moving into the southwest. This low...