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As climate changes, how do Earth's frozen areas affect our planet and impact society?
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![Snow-cover-days anomaly map, April 2021 Snow-cover-days anomaly map, April 2021](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/Data/data-SnowToday-whispers.png.webp?itok=rjAm410A)
Snow Analysis
Snow-covered area was below average in April 2021 with recent storms on the west coast pushing conditions closer to average. Snow cover days, cumulative over the season, are well below average for this water year, which spans from October 1, 2020 to present.
![A polar bear approaches the German research vessel Polarstern while on its yearlong Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Credit: Julienne Stroeve, NSIDC A polar bear approaches the German research vessel Polarstern while on its yearlong Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Credit: Julienne Stroeve, NSIDC](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/PolarBear_2.jpg.webp?itok=KcKFzOw9)
News Release
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced this week their participation in the 50x30 Coalition, a group of governments and cryosphere and emissions research institutions endorsing the
![map widget from IceFlow map widget from IceFlow](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/map_widget_1.png.webp?itok=G5z8MB6F)
Feature Story
With support from NASA, the NSIDC DAAC now offers a solution to compare years of altimeter data in the form of an interactive tool called IceFlow.
![Figure 1a Figure 1a](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/Other/AntToday_April2021_Figure1.png.webp?itok=y5LtZf2D)
Ice Sheet Analysis
With the exception of the northern and southern Antarctic Peninsula, the Antarctic melt season for 2020 to 2021 was unremarkable and below the 1990 to 2020 average.
![Map and graph of SWE changes Map and graph of SWE changes](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/Data/data-SnowToday-ripening.png.webp?itok=gLotQ0AV)
Snow Analysis
For snow water equivalent (SWE), the prevailing La Niña pattern persisted through March, with above average SWE in the north and below average SWE in the south. A blizzard in mid-March brought widespread and deep snow...
![Arctic sea ice extent image on March 21, 2021 Arctic sea ice extent image on March 21, 2021](/sites/default/files/styles/content_wwo_desktop/public/images/N_20210321_extn_blmrbl_hires_v3.0_1.png.webp?itok=O_eoV9Vz)
News Release
Arctic sea ice has likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.77 million square kilometers (5.70 million square miles) on March 21, 2021, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the Universi