Antarctic sea ice peaks at third-lowest maximum on record

Analysts at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center and the UK Met Office reported in briefings around 1 October 2026 that Antarctic sea ice almost certainly reached its 2026 winter maximum extent on 14 September, when the frozen cap around the continent spread to 17.59 million square kilometres (about 6.79 million square miles). If that date and figure hold once late-season fluctuations are reviewed, the 2026 maximum will rank as the third-lowest Antarctic winter peak in the 48-year satellite record, continuing a run of unusually small sea-ice years that began in 2023. Researchers linked the stunted growth to a combination of warmer Southern Ocean waters, persistent anomalous winds, and shifts in the polar jet that limited ice expansion into the Weddell and Ross seas. The news dovetailed with the Arctic summer minimum, which tied for the tenth lowest on record, and with wider warnings — including a Nature analysis that concluded the pace of global warming has nearly doubled over the past decade — that both polar regions are now showing persistent, large-scale deviations from their 1981–2010 baselines.