The U.S. space agency says the Arctic Sea, although not breaking a record for ice loss, had a faster ice melting period in August than ever before.

I was not expecting that ice cover at the end of summer this year would be as bad as 2007 because winter ice cover was almost normal, said Joey Comiso of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

He said the 2008 sea ice minimum was second to 2007 for the record-lowest extent of sea ice. An announcement by NASA and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center stated that as of Sept. 12 ice covered 1.74 million square miles. That's 860,000 square miles less than the average minimum extent recorded from 1979 to 2000.

Contributing to the near-record sea ice minimum in 2008 was a monthlong period that saw the fastest-ever rate of seasonal retreat. From Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, NASA data show Arctic Sea ice extent declined at a rate of 32,700 square miles per day, compared with a rate of about 24,400 square miles per day in August 2007. (c) UPI