The findings suggest that measuring the total size of the ozone hole says little about ozone depletion, and that it's misleading to use the hole's extent alone to measure environmental progress. (livescience.com)
The small size of the ozone hole in 2012 was a result of weather bringing in more ozone at higher levels of the stratosphere than usual to Antarctica, masking the depletion at lower levels. (livescience.com)
Tracking the ozone layer's recovery process is tricky because natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and weather variations can alter the size of the ozone hole. (sciencenews.org)