Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook Archive

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...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice breakup in the Bering Sea is about 2 weeks or more ahead of schedule. Reports from Gambell and the satellite imagery show that the Bering Sea is nearly sea ice free with only a very few spots of shorefast ice left. There will be no "last ice" out of the Gulf of Anadyr moving past St. Lawrence Island this year. Igor Krupnik provided some Russian dates for ice out of Kresta Bay in the Gulf of Anadyr in recent times; the earliest date was 28 June, in 1930.

The combination of a short 2010-2011 winter season and warm ocean waters (North Pacific influx)...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were not able to update the SIWO forecast on Friday, 10 June. We apologize and will post an update next week.

However, please see the updated satellite images and ice condition update below for recent information on ice distribution.

Near St. Lawrence Island

The sea ice in the northern Bering Sea has been dissipating rapidly for the last week. Shorefast ice is breaking away from the coast in many areas. There is some shorefast ice east of Savoonga with 2 to 4 tenths concentration of broken and jumbled ice just offshore of the shorefast ice. Shorefast ice is still present along the southeast shoreline of the island. Much of this is due to a big storm bringing gale force winds to the area. Not much more can be said for the ice near St. Lawrence Island because of the consistent cloud cover from that storm hiding the...

Near St. Lawrence Island

The majority of the sea ice remains on the northeast and eastern portions of the island. In fact, aside from a small area on the southwest side, there was very little sea ice showing up in satellite imagery around the western half of the island. Last week, there was an extension of the sea ice from east of Savoonga north into the Bering Strait. This area remains in place, but is considerably thinner. Ice concentrations on the eastern half of the island have also thinned, with the sea ice consisting of small floes.

Wales to Shishmaref

The sea ice...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Clouds have made viewing the sea ice coverage and movement a little more challenging this week. There was a larger area of high sea ice concentrations moving westward to the eastern part of St. Lawrence Island this week. In the last couple of days this ice appears to be thinning in concentration and has halted or slowed its westward progression. Another area of sea ice extending from near Savoonga and off to the northeast has been in place and not easily viewed given the clouds. It appears this general area of sea ice has not moved much in the last several days...

Near St. Lawrence Island

The combination of strong southeast winds and 7-8 foot seas is eroding the shorefast ice along the south shore of St. Lawrence Island. However, as the southeast winds continue over the next few days, they will push what is left of the pack ice south of the island up against the coast. Satellite imagery shows the shorefast ice between Gambell and Savoonga breaking up. Heavy concentrations of 6-9 tenths (i.e., 60-90%) continue to exist east of Savoonga. The southeast winds are pushing the strings of sea ice just west of Gambell further to the northwest. These...

Near St. Lawrence Island

There has been little change in the shorefast ice around Saint Lawrence Island in the last several days. Ice concentrations on the south side of the island have been quite low this week. There has also been an eastward progression of sea ice on the north side of the island. Since ice concentrations have been fairly low to the west side of the island, very little new sea ice has been moving toward the island to replace the ice moving out. Satellite indicates relatively high concentrations of sea ice within 10 miles of the shorefast ice between Gambell and...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice conditions have not changed much since last week. Air temperatures remain below freezing and NE winds have pushed the sea ice pack up against the north shore of St. Lawrence Island. Sea ice south of the island remains 2 to 4 tenths new/young with lots of open water and leads. Satellite imagery shows open water along the shorefast ice by the presence of low cloud formations just south of the open water. This is also the case along the western shore of St. Lawrence Island. Heavy concentrations of thicker ice occur along the coast from Savoonga eastward. In...

Sea ice conditions continue to reflect the effects of the large storm that moved through the area about 12 days ago. There are lots of small broken-up floes in the north central and northwestern Bering Sea, extending northward into the Bering Strait.

St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice continues to be made up of numerous small floes with extensive new/young ice in between, especially south of St. Lawrence Island. Shorefast ice is still present along the south shore. However, there is now open water along the edge of that shorefast ice. Numerous small floes of first-year thin ice are...

Near St. Lawrence Island

The big storm last week affected the concentration and extent of the sea ice in the Bering and southern Chukchi Seas - breaking and fracturing the ice, especially the shorefast ice that had exposure to storm winds (see the satellite images below). The lead edge of shorefast ice on the south side of St. Lawrence Island is fractured and broken up. It is probably very difficult to launch a boat from the edge because of the jumbled ice. Offshore of the shorefast edge, a large area of new/young and first-year thin ice extends at least 20 miles south. The pack ice...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Strong NE gale winds (minimum 35-40 knots) have pushed the sea ice down against the north shore of St. Lawrence Island, and forecasted winds over the next ten days should keep that ice up against the shore and shorefast ice. This push could be strong enough to break up the edge of the shorefast ice. The NE winds have opened up the waters south of the island so that the new and young ice is heavily fractured with some open water between. This condition should last for the next ten days. Satellite imagery shows that the sea ice pack around St. Lawrence Island is...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Satellite imagery shows the sea ice around St. Lawrence Island to be made up of numerous broken floes of all sizes. The ice appears thin with many areas of open water leads, and new, young ice just offshore of the expansive shorefast ice, especially along the south side of the island. Conditions are similar along the north coast between Gambell and Savoonga, but the shorefast ice between the two towns is very narrow. Shorefast ice east of Savoonga extends out many miles offshore. Current wind conditions continue to favor the loose pack south of the island.

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This will be the last SIWO outlook for the 2010 season.

Near St. Lawrence Island

The waters around St. Lawrence Island are becoming virtually sea-ice free except for some floes off the eastern end of the Island. The concentration is less than 20% and the floes are generally very small. All the "last ice" in the Gulf of Anadyr is gone. There is still persistent shorefast ice present along the northeastern coast of the Island, east of Savoonga.

Wales to Shishmaref

Satellite imagery shows that the shorefast ice off of Shishmaref has finally begun to really break up. Large...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Clouds have hindered the view the past several days, however, there are indications that shorefast ice still exists over the northeastern portion of St. Lawrence Island. Waters around the western half of the island appear to be ice free. Ice floes of various size have been flowing westward away from the west coast of Alaska and toward the southeast portion of St. Lawrence Island. The concentration of these floes is likely very low within 50 miles of the island.

Wales to Shishmaref

The nose of shorefast ice continues to persist between Wales and...

Near St. Lawrence Island

The waters around St. Lawrence Island are rapidly losing the little remaining sea ice. There is still some persistent shorefast ice, especially east of Savoonga and along the south shore of the Island. The only area near the Island of significant ice floes is just offshore of the east end of the Island. Here there is about 2 tenths concentration of various size floes, most less than 100m in size. Winds have been light out of the south. Very little ice is left in the Gulf of Anadyr, so there are few floes moving northwest past Gambell.

Wales to Shishmaref...