Influences and Impacts of Variability and Recent Collapse in Seasonal Bering Sea Ice Coverage

Seasonal ice extent in the Bering Sea has historically exhibited sub-decadal scale variability between relative highly and low extent epochs. However, both 2017-18 and 2018-19 produced unprecedented low sea extent with immediate impacts to the climate system and coastal communities as well as time lagged ecosystem wide ramifications. This presentation will place the extraordinary low ice seasons in terms of historical context and impacts, the relationship to larger scale climate drivers of importance to western North American climate and show that climate model simulations indicate that the anomalous extent of the past two winters could become the norm by mid-century.