Sweden's weather service says Baltic Sea region winter was mildest on record

Sweden's national weather service said Saturday that the ice-winter in the Baltic Sea region was the mildest on record, with the lowest levels of ice since measurement began more than a century ago.

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute said ice covered only 49,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) during the 2007-2008 Nordic winter, down from the "normal" ice extension of about 180,000 square kilometers (70,000 square miles)

"It's down both in terms of volume and extension," agency Oceanographer Amund Lindberg said, adding that this was "the mildest winter since measurement started in the beginning of the 20th century."

Although warmer weather was mainly to blame, he said the region's greatest ice extension was recorded as late as in the winter of 1986-1987, when 420,000 square kilometers (162,000 square miles) was covered by ice.

"The climate has an effect of course, but it varies all the time," he said.

"Looking back only two years, there was a lot of ice too, but no one talked about climate change when that happened."