Spring officially arrives on March 20, but for all practical purposes it’s still winter in Alaska.
As of March 14, the Bering Sea ice extent was the highest in over a decade, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness (ACCAP) in Fairbanks.
Persistent strong high pressure aloft centered over the southcentral Bering Sea has steered many storms and attendant warm air and south winds from the northwest Pacific into the Sea of Okhotsk, while east of the high center, cold north winds have been the rule, Thomas noted in his Arctic mid-March 2026 sea ice update.
Sea ice extent in the Bering Sea increased by more than 60% between Feb. 24 and March 12 in National Snow and Ice Data Center data and is now at the highest level since early April 2013.
This increase followed a dramatic change in the weather pattern that brought sustained north winds and very cold weather for so late in the season to the Alaska side of the Bering Sea. The March 12 extent was the eighth highest since 1979, all the higher values occurred in 2013 and earlier, Thoman noted in his report.
Ice in the Bering Sea north of 60° north and east of the dateline is significantly thicker and will take longer to melt, the report said.
