The U.S. Coast Guard formally begins its seasonal ice observation and Ice Patrol service whenever icebergs threaten primary shipping routes between Europe and the U.S. and Canada.  This usually occurs in the month of February and the threat usually extends through July, but the Ice Patrol is flexible and commences operations when iceberg conditions dictate.  Except during unusually heavy ice years, the Grand Banks are normally iceberg free from August through January.  The activities of the International Ice Patrol are delineated by treaty and U.S. law to encompass only those ice regions of the North Atlantic Ocean through which the major trans-Atlantic tracks pass. There remain other areas of ice danger where shipping must exercise extreme caution. A tragic example of this occurred on January 30, 1959 when S.S. HANSHEDTOFT struck an iceberg about 40 miles south of Cape Farewell, Greenland. On her maiden voyage, this ship, equipped with latest in electronic aids, sank without a trace, taking with it the 95 passengers and crew on board.  Fixed wing Coast Guard aircraft conduct the primary reconnaissance work for the Ice Patrol.  Ice reconnaissance flights are made on the average of five days every other week during the ice season. The mainstay of the Ice Patrol flights since 1962 has been the Hercules HC-130 aircraft. The usual patrol time for these long range multi-engine planes is between 5 to 7 hours, with each flight covering an expanse of water of 30,000 square miles or more.

Information concerning ice conditions is collected primarily from air surveillance flights and ships operating in or passing through the ice area. Ships are requested to report the position and time of all ice sighted and make sea surface temperature and weather reports to the International Ice Patrol Operations Center in Groton, CT, every 6 hours when in the vicinity of the Grand Banks.  All the iceberg data are fed into a computer model at the IIP Operations Center along with ocean current and wind data. Using this information, the model predicts the drift of the icebergs. Every 12 hours, the predicted iceberg locations are used to estimate the limit of all known ice. This limit, along with a few of the more critical predicted iceberg locations, is broadcast as an "Ice Bulletin" from radio stations around the U.S., Canada, Europe and over the World Wide Web. In addition to the Ice Bulletin, a radio facsimile chart of the area, depicting the limits of all known ice, is also broadcast twice daily. Except for the years of the two World Wars, the International Ice Patrol has conducted each season since 1913. During the period the Ice Patrol has amassed an enviable safety record with not a single reported loss of life or property due to collision with an iceberg outside the advertised limits of all known ice in the vicinity of the Grand Banks. However, the potential for a catastrophe still exists.

2010 International Ice Patrol Results

International Ice Patrol Areas of Concern