While balmy hints of spring melt piles of snow in the eastern U.S., the impending end of winter marks peak season for Arctic sea ice. But this year, that winter maximum area is currently on track to hit a record low since satellite records began in 1979… “The fact that we’re starting the melt season with low- maybe record low- winter extents cannot be good,” Jennifer Francis, a Rutgers University Arctic researcher, said in an email… But if sea ice levels don’t surge and instead begin to drop off or stay flat, that would indicate the winter maximum occurred earlier than normal, and “this is also bad news because it means that the melt season will be longer, allowing more opportunity for ice to melt,” Francis said.