New research on Arctic sea ice has come to some rather shocking conclusions: rather than shrinking, Arctic sea ice has actually grown since a cool summer in 2013, growth that continued into last year.

This growth helped make up for some of the significant losses in sea ice over the previous three years and indicates that perhaps changes in summer temperatures have a bigger effect on the amount of ice in the Arctic than scientists had expects, according to a BBC report.

Global Warming skeptics argue that this is an indication that the effects of climate change of the environment have been overblown, but scientists argue that 2013 was an aberration and an increase in global temperatures, as well as a melting of sea ice, will continue unabated in the future.

The Arctic is the region of the world that has been hit the hardest by rising global temperatures, which raises concern about everything from rising sea levels to the extinction of species like the polar bear. Satellite observations indicate that about 40 percent of the sea ice has disappeared since 1980, according to the report.

Researchers have been using Europe’s Cryosat satellite in recent years to study sea ice volume, using its sophisticated radar to measure the thickness of sea ice high above the Earth. It has found that sea ice has increased by 33 percent in 2013 compared to the average thickness between 2010 and 2012, and that in 2014 it still had a quarter more ice than during that three-year period.

The findings may mean that cool summers can buy Arctic sea ice a little more time, delaying the effects of Global Warming by a few years.