Canadian Ice – Half Normal Levels at Baffin Island

The edge of the ice floe along Davis Strait and southern Baffin Island has moved closer to shore this year, Environment Canada says.

Normally the ice floe edge is 400 to 500 kilometres offshore but this winter it's about half that distance, says Lionel Hache who is with the department's Canadian Ice Service. "Specifically over the Davis Strait area, the ice edge is much … closer to the shore, to the Baffin Island shore, than it is normally," Hache told CBC News.

"I would say, off Frobisher Bay, the ice edge is maybe a couple of hundred kilometres offshore but normally it is much more further offshore than that."

The ice formed a couple of weeks later than usual in Baffin Bay and nearly a month later in Hudson Bay, he said. This means it is thinner and expected to melt earlier than in past years unless there is a severe cold spell, he said.