NSIDC scientist Ted Scambos said, "Antarctica's changes—in winter, in the sea ice—are due more to wind than to warmth, because the warming does not take much of the sea ice area above the freezing point during winter. Instead, the winds that blow around the continent, the "westerlies," have gotten stronger in response to a stubbornly cold continent, and the warming ocean and land to the north." Researchers believe that climate change has created a "wind wall" that keeps the cold around the South Pole while the rest of the globe is warming.

One of the curious features of the latest set of data is that Antarctic sea ice has seen a record expansion. According to NSIDC the reasons for this are ‘complex and surprising’ but are inextricably linked to global climate change.