Recent Year-to-year Variations in Seasonal Temperatures and Sea Ice Conditions in the Eastern Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Mean summer and winter temperatures for the 1957-1978 period have been analyzed for four eastern Arctic stations. Standard deviations on the order of 3° C in winter and 10° C in summer indicate the magnitude of the interannual variations, and these departures are found to be synchronous over the region. Several indices of sea ice severity also show significant year-to-year variations, but these are not spatially coherent. Relationships between climatic parameters and sea ice are examined in order to explain these differences.