Melting Arctic ice cap falls to well below average

" This summer's minimum is the eighth lowest on record

• Shrinking ice cap increasingly linked to extreme weather events around the world, say scientists

The Arctic ice cap melted to hundreds of thousands of square miles below average this summer, according to data released late on Tuesday.

Climate change is pushing temperatures up most rapidly in the polar regions and left the extent of Arctic sea ice at 1.79m sq miles at the end of the summer melt season.