ICE CONDITIONS, 1976 SEASON 



September-December, 1975 



After the close of the 1975 lee Patrol Season, 

 occasional icebergs continued to drift south along 

 the Labrador coast, but none of these survived 

 long enough to reach the primary North Atlantic 

 shipping lanes. Ice reports received during the 

 latter part of September included the sighting of 

 a concentration of icebergs along a line from 

 53°N, 52°W to 51°N, 49°W. During this same 

 period, a Canadian ice reconnaissance aircraft 

 reported sighting a total of 117 icebergs and 135 

 growlers along the north side of Hudson Strait 

 between Resolute Island and Big Island. On 

 26 September, two icebergs were sighted drifting 

 together in an anomalous area (i.e., 53°06'N, 

 41°40'"W). This location is far from the normal 

 iceberg limit. These bergs were apparently the 

 remaining pieces of one or possibly two large 

 icebergs forced east out of the mainstream off 

 Labrador by strong offshore winds that persisted 

 over this area from mid-July through September. 

 On September 27, a group of three icebergs was 

 sighted in the vicinity of 50°54'N, 53°24'W. This 

 was the last ice received until late October. Be- 

 tween mid-August and mid-October the eastern 

 Canadian waters remained free of sea ice from 

 the Baffin Island coast southward. Several ice- 

 berg reports were received from merchant ship- 

 ping in the latter part of October. The southern- 

 most of these was a medium size iceberg in 

 position 50°45'N, 54°05'W on October 31. Freeze- 

 up started in northern Baffin Bay during October 

 and advanced to 68°N by the end of the month. 

 On November 19, aircraft returning from Europe 

 at high altitude reported a very large iceberg, 

 estimated to have a horizontal area of approxi- 

 mately 3 square miles. This sighting was not 

 confirmed and could possibly have been a small 

 very dense fog patch. This was the only berg 

 report for the month. During December, sea ice 

 cover grew rapidly, expanding from the northern 

 tip of Labrador in the beginning of the month to 

 reach Newfoundland's northern peninsula by 



month's end. This pushed season freeze-up ap- 

 proximately one week to ten days ahead of nor- 

 mal. New ice was beginning to form in some of 

 the sheltered shallows of Notre Dame Bay and 

 the northern Newfoundland peninsula. Fast ice 

 had formed along the entire east coast of Labra- 

 dor and close pack new and grey ice from this 

 area drifted southward across the eastern ap- 

 proaches to the Strait of Belle Isle. Reports of 

 ice from trans-Atlantic shipping proceedings 

 through the Strait of Belle Isle during December 

 indicated a few icebergs were beginning to drift 

 into this area. 



January 1976 



A Canadian forces aircraft reported three ice- 

 bergs (no size indicated) at position 53°25'N, 

 52°33'W on 27 January. This was the only re- 

 port during the month. After a brief warming 

 trend at the beginning of the month, very cold 

 air persisted over the Canadian Atlantic provinces 

 until mid-January. As a result, there was wide- 

 spread growth of new ice northeast of Newfound- 

 land. Between 25 and 31 January, preseason 

 flights were made along the Labrador coast, across 

 Davis Strait and up the Baffin Island coast to 

 Cape Dyer (Figure 1). The latitudinal iceberg 

 distribution observed during these flights is illus- 

 trated graphically in figure 2. The count north 

 of Hudson Strait in the survey area was 516, 

 about 80% of the previous 10 year average. The 

 iceberg inventory south of Hudson Strait was 42 

 or 55% of the average. The icebergs sighted were 

 generally smaller than normal. The southernmost 

 of these were one medium and two small bergs 

 first sighted on 25 January in the vicinity of 

 53°51'N. These were resighted on 31 January 

 in positions 53°21'N, 51°16'W and 53°18'N, 

 51°40'W. Strong winds and above normal tem- 

 peratures during the last half of January re- 

 tarded the southward drift of the sea ice pack off 

 Labrador, causing it to expand seaward and to 

 maintain generally light ice conditions in Notre 

 Dame Bay. By the end of January, the sea ice 



