plots provided by the U.S. National Weather 

 Service's Climate Prediction Center 

 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration [NOAA]/National Weather 

 Service [NWS], 2007); and, finally, 

 summaries of the iceberg data collected by 

 Ice Patrol and CIS. Because Ice Patrol did 

 not create daily limits of all known ice 

 (LAKI) in 2006, the CIS iceberg analyses 

 are used to document the extent of the 

 iceberg population from 15 February to 01 

 July 2006 (pages 33-43). 



The progress of the 2005-2006 ice 

 year is compared to sea-ice and iceberg 

 observations from the historical record. The 

 sea-ice historical data are derived from the 

 Sea-ice Climatic Atlas, East Coast of 

 Canada, 1971-2000 (Canadian Ice Service, 

 2001), which provides a 30-year median of 

 ice concentration at seven-day intervals for 

 the period from 26 November to 16 July. 



The preseason sea-ice forecast 

 (Canadian Ice Service, 2005), which was 

 issued on 02 December, predicted: 



• movement of the southern ice edge to 

 the northern entrance of the Strait of 

 Belle Isle (Figure 1) by end of 

 December 2005, which is one to two 

 weeks later than normal, 



• during March the southern ice edge 

 could reach as far north as Cape St. 

 Francis, but most of the significant ice 

 would remain north of Cape Bonavista, 

 and 



• sea-ice retreat beginning during the latter 

 part of March and proceeding at a 

 normal pace. 



From 05-26 October 2005, CIS, with 

 the cooperation of C-CORE, conducted a 

 census of the iceberg population in the 

 Davis Strait using 57 RadarSat images and 

 one aircraft reconnaissance patrol that 

 focused on the coastal region (Desjardins, 

 2005). The resulting iceberg count was 262, 

 approximately thirty of which were in the 

 southward-moving offshore waters. The 

 offshore icebergs are likely to be the 



icebergs that arrive first at 48°N, thus are the 

 vanguard of the iceberg season. The 2005 

 survey count was the lowest number of 

 icebergs observed during the six years CIS 

 has conducted this survey. Desjardins (2005) 

 predicted a late February or early March 

 opening to the 2006 iceberg season (defined 

 as the date that IIP starts providing daily 

 warnings to mariners). 



December 2005 



Labrador experienced warmer-than- 

 normal conditions throughout December. The 

 mean daily air temperatures at Nain, Goose 

 Bay, and Cartwright, Labrador were 1.7°C to 

 2.2°C above normal for the month 

 (Environment Canada, 2007). In addition, 

 December's mean sea-surface temperature 

 was about 0.5°C above normal along the 

 northern Labrador coast. Farther offshore, the 

 surface waters of the central Labrador Sea 

 were up to 1.5 °C warmer than normal. As a 

 result, the southern edge of the main ice pack 

 reached Cape Chidley — the northernmost 

 point in Labrador — during the last week of 

 December, about three weeks later than 

 normal. 



January 2006 



Much warmer-than-normal air 

 temperatures prevailed in Newfoundland and 

 Labrador during the entire month of January 

 with daily average temperature in Goose Bay, 

 Cartwright, and St. John's, respectively, 

 3.5°C, 4.2°C, and 3.3°C above normal. At 

 fourteen Newfoundland locations new daily 

 maximum temperature records were set 

 during a mid-January warm period 

 (Environment Canada Atlantic Region, 

 2006). Consequently, sea-ice development 

 was well behind normal for most of the 

 month. 



The southern sea-ice edge reached the 

 northern entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle at 



13 



