Seasonal Summary for Eastern Canada - Winter 2010-2011

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General overview of the 2010-2011 Season

The 2010-2011 season in the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Newfoundland and Labrador waters was another season with very little ice; the total accumulated ice coverage (the TAC provides average conditions for the season) for the East Coast set a new record low for the season, due to the lack of ice along the Labrador coast. The TAC for the Gulf of St Lawrence and the TAC for Newfoundland were both the second lowest on record. More ice than last year was present in the Estuary; in part because normal temperatures were registered in its western portion during the months of January and February. Ice was present at times south of Anticosti Island but otherwise there was little ice in the main shipping route leading to the Estuary throughout the winter. The pack ice never reached the Îles de la Madeleine and remained much thinner than usual throughout the winter.  In the east Newfoundland waters the shipping route along the east coast northward to Cape Freels remained open or bergy water throughout most of the ice season. Ice reached Notre Dame Bay in late March. This turned out to be the maximum ice extent of the season off East Newfoundland and the ice started retreating from that point on.

The daily and weekly ice charts for the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Newfoundland and Labrador waters are available at the following CIS Website: http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/ by clicking on "Archive" then on "Archived charts" (both on left hand side menu).

The median of ice concentration charts are available on the CIS web site by clicking on "Archive" → "Archive charts" → "Regional Medians" → "30-year Ice Atlases" → "Sea Ice Climatic Atlas for the East Coast 1981-2010".

Departure from normal sea ice concentration charts are often shown in this document. Please note that on these charts, red means less ice than normal and blue more ice than normal.