Seasonal Information All information on this site has been compiled using iceberg sightings from Provincial Aerospace iceberg database. The database is made up from iceberg sightings over an area bounded by: 4200N to 5500N, 4400W to Land. The iceberg database contain sightings of opportunity on general surveillance missions, (that is missions where the primary tasking was not to locate icebergs) and sighted on dedicated ice reconnaissance missions. No attempt to correlate one sighting to that of the previous or next flight have been made as a result some numbers may represent multiple sightings of the same icebergs. The following chart shows the total number of iceberg sightings from Provincial Aerospace iceberg database by year. Below this chart are the sightings for icebergs south of 48.00N and access to monthly distribution charts for the years indicated Included in the above statistics are the sightings of icebergs below the 48th parallel. this area is singled out for two reasons; first it is below 48.00N that icebergs cause the most problems for shipping, and secondly it is a defining line used by both the International Ice Patrol and Environment Canada to measure the severity of the ice season. The following table shows a comparison of the total number of icebergs sighted by both Provincial and IIP. There are several reasons for the differences in numbers, among them are the mission profiles and the approach to iceberg reconnaissance. It is interesting though that the seasonal trends remain constant between both sets of data. It should be noted that the relationship between the total number of icebergs sighted over the whole area and those that drift below 48.00N depend on many environmental factors such as; seasonal wind patterns, current patterns, and water temperature. The following chart plots the two data sets. A good example of this relationship is seen in the high number of icebergs sighted in the spring of 1994. The wind and current patterns over that spring pushed the icebergs inshore and held them well above the 48th parallel and did not translate into high numbers sighted below 48.00N. Again, 1999 saw high numbers of icebergs, However, due to unusually high water temperatures almost no icebergs survived to drift south of the 48th parallel.