---
title: "Study: Shrinking Sea Ice Means More-Intense Storms on Alaska’s Coast"
date: 2024-11-13T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/study-declining-sea-ice-intensifies-storms-impacting-alaska"
section: Articles
---
# Study: Shrinking Sea Ice Means More-Intense Storms on Alaska’s Coast

*November 13, 2024* — by [Cazzy Medley](/author/cazzy-medley)


> Bering Sea Environmental Changes Threaten People, Ecosystems

*14014690336 70d406e32f o 2 1920x1080 — Sea ice helps keep waves at bay and can blunt the power of storms before they strike coastal communities. UMD researchers found in a new study that shrinking sea ice extent is resulting in more intense storms sweeping off the Bering Sea.*

While reliably snow-blanketed holidays might seem a thing of the past in Maryland and other parts of the East Coast—including Boston, which [set a record](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/16/metro/boston-snow-totals-this-winter-drought/) this year for the longest stretch with no major snowfall—a [new University of Maryland study](https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0485.1) reveals a much more urgent winter climate shift in a subpolar region of North America.

In findings published this week in the *Journal of Climate*, researchers with the Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) identified the Bering Sea in the northern Pacific Ocean as a climate change hotspot, showing how environmental changes there threaten the stability of vulnerable coastal communities and ecosystems.

The research team found that in nine of the last 10 winters, sea ice extent was lower than average, including record lows in 2018 and 2019. During this period of sea ice loss, wind speeds and wave heights increased.

“In the Bering Sea, sea ice acts both to dampen waves as they hit the edge of the ice cover, and also to limit the transfer of energy from winds into the ocean from which waves are generated. In turn, winds and waves can break up sea ice into smaller pieces at the ice edge,” said Reint Fischer, a graduate student in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (AOSC) and first author of the paper.

Fischer used satellite remote sensing to analyze surface ocean conditions in the Bering Sea, working alongside co-authors Associate Professor Sinead Farrell of AOSC and the Department of Geographical Sciences, ESSIC Senior Faculty Specialist Kyle Duncan and oceanographer John Kuhn of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


*floodwater lifts building from foundation — (Photo by Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program)*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Atmospheric and Oceanic Science](https://today.umd.edu/topic/atmospheric-and-oceanic-science), [Climate Change](https://today.umd.edu/topic/climate-change), [Geographical Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/geographical-sciences), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences), [Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center](https://today.umd.edu/topic/earth-system-science-interdisciplinary-center)