{"id":337002,"date":"2024-07-19T17:44:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337002"},"modified":"2024-07-19T17:44:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T15:44:19","slug":"w-hudson-bay-sea-ice-not-going-away-anytime-soon-as-polar-bears-sit-tight-offshore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337002","title":{"rendered":"W. Hudson Bay sea ice not going away anytime soon as polar bears sit tight offshore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) on ice covered rocks. Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From polarbearscience<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A broad band of sea ice is jammed up against the western shore of Hudson Bay, hanging on despite warm mid-July temperatures. Its unusual thickness suggests it won\u2019t be gone anytime soon, which means most Western Hudson Bay polar bears will likely remain offshore for at least a few more weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dark blue in the \u201cdeparture from normal\u201d chart below shows just how unusual this phenomenon is for the northern reaches of Hudson Bay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sea ice thickness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the week of 15 July 2024, sea ice on Hudson Bay is still at least 1m thick (medium green) but up to 2m thick in places (dark green). The thickest ice extends into Foxe Basin to the north:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Polar bears on ice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bears tagged by University of Alberta researchers are almost all still on the ice \u2014 only two have come ashore so far:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As I remarked last week, it\u2019s getting harder and harder for polar bear specialists to ignore the fact that their assumptions about sea ice concentration and polar bear behaviour during the ice-melt season was flat-out wrong. This year, some WH bears could again remain on the ice until August, despite what has been, on paper, the\u00a0earliest breakup year on record<\/a>\u00a0for Hudson Bay sea ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A broad band of sea ice is jammed up against the western shore of Hudson Bay, hanging on despite warm mid-July temperatures. Its unusual thickness suggests it won\u2019t be gone anytime soon, which means most Western Hudson Bay polar bears will likely remain offshore for at least a few more weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":337009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691825191,691818251,691829762],"class_list":{"0":"post-337002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-hudson-bay-sea-ice","9":"tag-polar-bears","10":"tag-warm-mid-july-temperatures","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/00polar-bear-on-ice-manitoba.jpg?fit=1860%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pFw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":267566,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267566","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":0},"title":"Hudson Bay sea ice loss has not accelerated since 2014: in fact, summer ice cover has improved","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/15\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This is only the third year since 2014 that the bay has had less than usual amounts of ice, which means most years since then have had normal or nearly normal ice coverage, similar to the 1980s. Hardly the\u00a0ever-worsening catastrophe\u00a0of sea ice loss story being spun in the media for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hudson Bay\"","block_context":{"text":"Hudson Bay","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=hudson-bay"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":210855,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=210855","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":1},"title":"Most Hudson Bay polar bears are still offshore, excellent ice conditions for late July","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/29\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"With only a few days until the end of July, most Western Hudson Bay polar bears are still on a thick band of thick first year ice that remains close to shore. The few bears that have come off the ice appear to be\u00a0nice and fat, indicating they had good\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-18-july-2022-mother-and-cub-onshore-1.jpg?fit=732%2C523&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-18-july-2022-mother-and-cub-onshore-1.jpg?fit=732%2C523&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-18-july-2022-mother-and-cub-onshore-1.jpg?fit=732%2C523&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-18-july-2022-mother-and-cub-onshore-1.jpg?fit=732%2C523&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":212095,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=212095","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":2},"title":"Hudson Bay sea ice update: many polar bears are still on low concentration ice offshore","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/05\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost half of all tagged Western Hudson polar bears are still out on the ice of Hudson Bay, even though much of it is broken up in pieces: as of yesterday, 10 out of 22 bears were still offshore. Mother and cub near Churchill last year, 30 October 2021. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-144.png?fit=780%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-144.png?fit=780%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-144.png?fit=780%2C574&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-144.png?fit=780%2C574&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":209331,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=209331","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":3},"title":"Some of the first polar bears onshore in Western Hudson Bay are in excellent condition","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/20\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"From the live cams installed on\u00a0beluga tour boats\u00a0running near the Churchill River, we have some good photos of a few fat polar bears onshore in Western Hudson Bay. These bears were attracted to the remnants of a beluga carcass with nothing much left on it (lower right in the photo)\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-19-july-2022-female-on-shore.jpg?fit=751%2C573&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-19-july-2022-female-on-shore.jpg?fit=751%2C573&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-19-july-2022-female-on-shore.jpg?fit=751%2C573&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0polar-bear-near-churchill-by-beluga-boat-cam-19-july-2022-female-on-shore.jpg?fit=751%2C573&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":214945,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=214945","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":4},"title":"Grizzly on the shore of W. Hudson Bay and two tagged polar bears still on sea ice on 17 August","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/22\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Before this, polar bear experts looked at the sea ice conditions in the 1980s and figured that was what polar bears absolutely required","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-941.png?fit=1200%2C820&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-941.png?fit=1200%2C820&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-941.png?fit=1200%2C820&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-941.png?fit=1200%2C820&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-941.png?fit=1200%2C820&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265498,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265498","url_meta":{"origin":337002,"position":5},"title":"Early sea ice breakup in W Hudson Bay caused by \u201crecord breaking\u201d warmth in 2023 but not 2015?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"According to\u00a0Polar Bears International, the \u201c3rd-earliest\u201d breakup date for Western Hudson Bay was caused by a \u201crecord breaking\u201d heat wave in May. Western Hudson Bay sea ice hit the 30% coverage threshold used by PBI to define \u201cbreakup\u201d on 17 June this year, prompting speculation about potential future impacts on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bears Onshore\"","block_context":{"text":"Bears Onshore","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bears-onshore"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=337002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337010,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337002\/revisions\/337010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/337009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=337002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=337002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=337002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}