The ice cover last month of 3.5 m square miles was 750,000 square miles below normal.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Global temperatures were much higher at this time than they are today and there was no ice cover at either pole.
The Times Literary Supplement (2010)
A thick coat of ground ice covered 98% of the lowland ranges, almost completely blocking access to terrestrial forage.
Brage Bremset Hansen, Ronny Aanes 2012, 'Kelp and seaweed feeding by High-Arctic wild reindeer under extreme winter conditions', Polar Research