July 



In mid-July both the southern and 

 eastern iceberg limits were near median 

 extent. In July, 41 icebergs were estimated 

 to have drifted south of 48 N; the average 

 is 31. The last IRD deployed from 12 to 20 

 July and found 64 icebergs. The last of the 

 sea ice departed the coast of Labrador 

 during the final week of July. 



On 7 July, the easternmost 

 observed iceberg was seen at 48°00'N and 

 38^00'W. Four days later, on 1 1 July, the 

 same iceberg was estimated to have 

 drifted to 48°05'N and 37°25'W, the 

 easternmost modeled iceberg drift during 

 the 2000 iceberg season. By month's end 

 the iceberg limit in the south was near the 

 median, however, there were only two 

 isolated icebergs setting the limit. The 

 eastern limit was well west of the median, 

 at about the 75"" percentile. Part of the 

 reason for the rapid retreat of the iceberg 

 limit was warmer than normal sea surface 

 temperatures throughout the area. The 



July SSTs were 1° to 2°C above normal on 

 the northeast Newfoundland shelf and 

 along the southern Labrador coast and 

 over 2°C warmer than normal over most of 

 the Grand Banks (Figure 17). 



August 



The rapid iceberg destruction 

 continued into August, with 2.5°C warmer- 

 than-normal SSTs throughout the waters 

 east of Newfoundland and southern 

 Labrador. IIP closed the 2000 iceberg 

 season on August 9, at which time there 

 were only scattered icebergs south of 

 Hamilton InleL 



Summary 



From mid-January through the end 

 of April, air temperatures in Labrador and 

 Newfoundland were warmer than normal. 

 This created unfavorable conditions for ice 

 growth and accelerated ice retreat once 

 the maximum had passed. 



60"W 59"W 56"W 54'W 52'W 50"W 48'W 46"W 44"W 42"W 40'W 



Figure 17. Mean sea surface temperature anomaly (blended from ship, buoy, and 

 bias-corrected satellite data) for July 2000. (NOAA NCEP EMC CMB GLOBAL sea 

 surface temperature anomaly product from IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library) 



19 



