During April, Arctic sea ice extent declined at a steady pace,
remaining just below the 1979 to 2000 average. Ice extent for
April 2010 was the largest for that month in the past decade. At
the same time, changing wind patterns have caused older, thicker
ice to move south along Greenland’s east coast, where it will
likely melt during the summer. Temperatures in the Arctic
remained above average. Overview of conditions Arctic sea ice
extent averaged 14.69 million square kilometers (5.67 square
miles) for the month of April, just 310,000 square kilometers
(120,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average. The rate
of ice extent decline for the month was also close to average,
at 41,000 kilometers (16,000 square miles) per day. As a result,
April 2010 fell well within one standard deviation of the mean
for the month, and posted the highest April extent since 2001.
Ice extent remained slightly above average in the Bering Sea and
Sea of Okhotsk, and slightly below average in the Barents Sea
north of Scandinavi