The record low Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter sea ice maximum stemmed from a strong interannual surface anomaly in the Pacific sector, but it would not have been reached without long-term climate change.

Fučkar and Massonnet are Juan de la Cierva fellows. Guemas, García-Serrano and Bellprat are Ramón y Cajal, Marie Curie, and ESA fellows, respectively. This study was supported by the funding from the EU’s SPECS (308378), EUCLEIA (607085) and PRIMAVERA (641727) projects. The authors thank the editor and reviewers for constructive input and acknowledge the computer resources, technical expertise, and assistance provided by the Red Española de Supercomputación (RES) network and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Peer Reviewed