{...
Northwest Passage clear of ice again in 2016
Author:
Tom Di Liberto
September 16, 2016

For the last several decades, Earth has had a fever, and it has been spiking in recent years. Nowhere has this been clearer than across the Arctic, where annual average temperature has been warming at twice the rate of lower latitudes. As a result, sea ice has become a
dwindling commodityin the far north frequently exposing the southern path through the Northwest Passage—the oft-talked about ship route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Canadian Arctic.
The Canadian Arctic on August 9, 2016, showing the Northwest Passage nearly free of ice. The "southern route" through the passage, travelled by Roald Amundsen in the early 1900s, is traced in yellow. The more commericaly important "northern route" goes straight through Parry Channel from Lancaster Sound to McClure Strait. NASA/NOAA image from Suomi/NPP satellite.
Cloudless skies across the Arctic on August 9 provided a clear view of open water conditions across the straits that make up the Canadian Arctic. Thinner ice and record-low sea ice extents leading up to the 2016 summer melt season plus warmer oceans during the summer led to well below-average amounts of sea ice across the Arctic. Strong storms during August helped break up and clear out the ice along the southern route of the passage. You can draw a line yourself through iceless seas to create your own path, like finishing a real-time geographic maze.
...}
Northwest Passage clear of ice again in 2016 | NOAA Climate.gov