Arctic Sea Ice Update

There is much more ice in the Beaufort Sea presently (July 27th) than last year at this time. Here's the Alaska-centered graphic from the University of Illinois Cyrosphere Today:

The  difference in the Beaufort Sea coverage between last year and this year is shown at the endpoints of this plot:

 

Arctic-wide, the sea ice coverage is not quite as low as the record low last year, but it is close, thanks to much less ice on the Atlantic side of the Arctic. This year continues the pattern we've seen since 2007, with different parts of the Arctic having different year to year melt patterns, but for the basin as a whole the ice coverage continues to decrease. The melt season has another six to nine weeks to go, and a vigorous storm earlier this week well north of Alaska may have broken up a lot of northern Beaufort Sea ice, so the accelerating decline evident on the Beaufort Sea ice area plot is likely to continue.