However, although the sea ice is shrinking -- covering less total area as well as becoming thinner -- the Arctic is still a world ruled by ice, a lesson well learned when the Polar Pioneer encountered heavy pack ice between Svalbard and the eastern coast of Greenland, forcing the captain to divert the boat and drop speed to just a few knots.
After making eight runs without hitting an ice spot or heavy snow section, and two dig-outs from face plants, I am ready to return to our womb-like boat, where sheepskin booties await.
Between the summer of 1999 and early 2002, an unprecedented series of meteorological disasters took place: great swathes of Mongolia were hit by drought, and by different types of zud, winter phenomena that prevent animals feeding either because of ice crusts or heavy snow.
Earlier heavy snow and ice continues to be a problem on many of Somerset's roads.
Heavy snow and ice brought down power lines in Kintyre on Friday, which blacked out a huge area, including Arran, over the weekend.
The forecast for past several days has been terrible with warnings and advisories for gusting winds, heavy rain and ice and several inches of snow slated to blow into the Philadelphia area.
In Minnesota, Governor Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency after communities in the south-west of the state - already struggling to restore power from an earlier ice storm - were buried under heavy snow.
In the upper Midwest, thousands of homes and businesses also lost power because of heavy wet snow, ice and wind in the past couple of days, while rain and snow raised flooding concerns in various areas of the Midwest.
Bloom, 25, worked with a heavy metal pole to break ice blocks into the frozen water.
These outages were the result of a combination of whipping winds and power poles and lines sagging, and sometimes snapped, under the weight of especially heavy, wet snow and ice.
To the west are the saw-edges of glacier-encrusted rock and ice, serrated by more than 30 jagged peaks heavy with snow, the highest of which is 6, 768m-high Huascaran, the tallest mountain in the tropics.
Firefighters said the flooding was caused by a mixture of heavy rain and rising temperatures thawing snow and ice, and have warned people to listen to forecasts.
Widespread ice on untreated roads and "very poor visibility" during heavy snow showers would make driving conditions dangerous, the Met Office warned.
Heavy machinery was brought in to break up and remove ice from the river, so that boats and divers could get in, Sideras explained.
Ice has been a problem in many parts of the UK over the Christmas period after heavy snow and sub zero temperatures.
Dragging heavy fire hoses along the ground is never easy, but dragging fire hoses across ice?
WSJ: Chicago Blaze Shows the Misery and Peril of Fire-Fighting in Cold Climes
In Scotland, drivers have been warned about ice and snow on the roads in Grampian, Tayside and the Borders after several days of heavy snow.
Because Green has such a hard, heavy slap shot and can score from great distances with it, all four Rangers on the ice shifted in his direction when he released the puck, leaving Ovechkin the league leader in goals this season with 32 open at the side of the net.
The National Center for Traffic Information described the snowfall as "remarkable" for the Paris region, where heavy snows are unusual, and warned motorists that the wintry conditions could "turn roads into real ice rinks".
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