Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook Archive

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...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Sea ice continues to melt rapidly in the northern Being Sea. However, there are remnants of shorefast ice along the north shore of St. Lawrence Island between Gambell and Savoonga. There is a large concentration of pack ice offshore of the shorefast ice just east of Savoonga extending northward about 20 miles. 5-7 tenths of sea ice present east and southeast of the Island consists of mixed floes. "Last ice" is now drifting in bands from the Gulf of Anadyr northeastward toward the Bering Strait. A major band of this sea ice is about 20 miles northwest of Gambell...

Near St. Lawrence Island

High pressure continues to persist over the northern Chukchi Sea, producing consistent northerly winds. The northerly winds have pushed some of the ice pack down on the north shore of St. Lawrence Island, west of Savoonga. Otherwise, except for some narrow shorefast ice along some of the shores, the waters northwest, west, and south of St. Lawrence Island are open with widely scattered small floes still present. The major ice pack still exists east and southeast of St. Lawrence Island where there is a mix of floe types and sizes. The open waters around St...

Near St. Lawrence Island

There is now open water south and west of St. Lawrence Island. There is a band of ice floes west of Gambell that extends southwest to northeast about 15 miles offshore. Floe size varies from 3/4 mile in diameter to very small floes. The floes are mostly broken. "Last ice" still remains in the southwest corner of the Gulf of Anadyr.

Wales to Shishmaref

Northerly winds continue to persist, pushing the ice pack down against the shorefast ice that is still in place across the northwest shore of the Seward Peninsula. A narrow strip of shorefast ice...

Near St. Lawrence Island

Northerly winds are continuing to persist well into May. These winds are keeping a lot of the ice south of the Bering Strait, especially east of St. Lawrence Island where ice concentration is 50-70%. North and west of St. Lawrence there are large expanses of open water and new, young ice with numerous, mixed-size, individual, heavier ice floes in long bands. South of St. Lawrence there is 30-50% concentration of ice extending over 60 miles south. There are still some narrow bands of shorefast ice along the southern shore of the island.

Wales to Shishmaref...

Near Saint Lawrence Island

Northerly winds have continued to push ice south of the Bering Strait and to the east of Saint Lawrence Island. This ice was also packing up over the eastern half of the island. There has been enough of an easterly component recently to allow for the sea ice to move westward around Saint Lawrence Island. As a result, ice concentrations northwest of Savoonga and north of Gambell are relatively low. Also, the general flow of ice has not been northward to the south and west of Saint Lawrence Island. Waters were somewhat open on the west side of Saint Lawrence...

Near Saint Lawrence Island

Persistent northeast winds through April 28th continued to push large floes south into Saint Lawrence Island, especially around and to the east of Savoonga. These winds have also kept concentrations of the large floes 10-25 miles west of Saint Lawrence Island and more than 40 miles to the south of Saint Lawrence Island. The sea ice was generally drifting south through the 28th. Westerly winds on the 29th modified the flow slightly, but this change will be brief. Closer to shore, new ice continued to reform in the polynyas, however, satellite imagery indicates...

Wales to Shishmaref

The storms of early to mid April significantly reduced the shorefast ice near Wales. The ice edge continues to erode slowly. There is open water along the shorefast ice. Further offshore of the shorefast ice and open water there is a lot of new, young ice extending out to 10 miles or more. Clouds cover the ice north of Shishmaref, but breaks in the clouds indicate that the shorefast ice is heavily fractured and has many leads, and that strong southerly winds could break down this ice very rapidly the next time they occur. At present, the northerly winds have pushed the...