The average ice area in the Arctic region was 35% less in August 2019 than the average for this month, Copernicus European Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reports.
"The average area of Arctic ice in August 2019 was 4.8 million square kilometers, which is 2.6 million square kilometers, or 35%, lower than the average for August according to 1980-2010. August-2019 Arctic ice is second only to the 2012 figure", according to the report.
According to experts, the least amount of ice was in the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Seas, but on the other side of the Arctic Ocean the anomalies were not so great, and the ice level in the Spitsbergen area was even higher than usual.