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Arctic sea ice melt set to break record
Summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is expected to shrink to a record minimum amount sometime next week and then continue melting.
The previous record was set in 2007, when Arctic ice cover shrank to 1.66 million square miles (4.28 million square km), 23 percent below the earlier record set in 2005 and 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado says this year's melt started between ten days to two weeks earlier than usual in some critical areas including northern Europe and Siberia. It's expected to continue to melt into September.
BBC Weather's John Hammond explains.
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