Scientists comment on _Copernicus_ data reporting global sea ice cover is at a record low, and that February was the third warmest on record.
**Professor Simon Josey, Professor of Oceanography at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, said:**
“The current record low global sea ice extent revealed by the Copernicus analysis is of serious concern as it reflects major changes in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Warm ocean and atmospheric temperatures will prove critical for Antarctic sea-ice in the coming months as they may lead to an extensive failure of the ice to regrow in southern hemisphere winter. A recent study (Josey et al., 2024) has shown that this can lead to increasingly stormy conditions in the Southern Ocean and altered ocean properties with potential impacts for the wider ocean and atmospheric circulation.”
Josey, S. A., A. J. S. Meijers, A. T. Blaker, J. P. Grist, J. Mecking and H. C. Ayres, 2024: Record-low Antarctic sea ice in 2023 increased ocean heat loss and storms, Nature, [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08368-y](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08368-y).
**Dr Robert Larter, Marine Geophysicist, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said:**
“The results from C3S showing that global sea ice extent reached a new all-time minimum in February highlight the substantial effects climate change is having in polar regions and are a cause for serious concern. These results are consistent with independent analysis from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the US. Sea ice has an important climate feedback effect because of its high “albedo”, reflecting a large proportion of incident solar radiation back into space. It also plays an important role in the ecology of the polar oceans and helps protect floating ice shelves in Antarctica, which buttress the ice sheet, by suppressing ocean swell. Furthermore, brine rejection during seasonal formation of sea ice is a key process in the formation of dense water masses that sink to the depths of the ocean and are critical to driving the global overturning thermohaline circulation.
“The near-record low in Antarctic sea-ice extent follows on from extents in the previous two years that were the lowest in the period over which satellite records have been available, and extends the run of years with low minimum sea ice extents that started with a steep decline in 2016. Antarctic sea-ice extent has usually started to grow again before the end of February as the days get shorter in the Southern Ocean, but this year several days into March the data show no sign of significant new sea ice formation.”
**Prof Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Science, University of Reading, said:**
“February 2025 saw the lowest recorded coverage of sea ice globally as the Arctic reached a record low maximum extent of around 14 million square kilometres and sea ice at the fringes of Antarctica stayed near the record low minimum extent of around 2 million square kilometres, which has been reached every February since 2022. Every successive February, the Arctic has been losing on average 42 thousand square kilometres of sea ice, twice the area of Wales. Parts of the high Arctic have been up to 12 degrees Celsius above average while on the other hand the USA and Canada froze, showing that heat can temporarily shift from one place to another. But averaging over all regions, the global warming trend is clear with February 2025 more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial conditions, repeating a level of excess warmth experienced in all but 1 of the past 20 months, despite a weak cooling influence of La Niña conditions in the Pacific. The long term prognosis for Arctic sea ice is grim as the region continues to rapidly heat up and can only be saved with rapid and massive cuts to greenhouse gas emissions that will also limit the growing severity of weather extremes and long term sea level rise across the world.”
**Declared interests**
**Dr Robert Larter:** No conflicts.
**Professor Richard Allan:** no conflicting interests
For all other experts, no response to our request for DOIs was received.