Baltic sea ice cover hits an all-time low: meteorologists
Pastor Dale Morgan
Baltic sea ice cover hits an all-time low: meteorologists*
STOCKHOLM, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2008
The extent of ice covering the Baltic sea this winter reached an
all-time low, since measurements began more than a century ago, Swedish
meteorologists said.
"Overall, 49,000 square kilometres (around 19,000 square miles) of the
Baltic sea were covered in ice compared to the usual 180,000 square
kilometres," the Swedish Meteorological Agency (SMHI) said.
That was just over a quarter of the normal level, the agency said. And
the the ice season had ended two weeks early, it added.
The SMHI also reported lower than normal levels of ice cover in the Gulf
of Finland, and said the Gulf of Bothnia near Finland was hardly covered
in ice at all this winter, apart from coastal areas.
According to agency records, the highest levels of ice cover in the
Baltic came in the winter of 1986 and 1987 when 420,000 square
kilometres (around 162,000 square miles) of its waters were covered.