The melt season is under way, and ice extents are shrinking in the usual places: Barents, Bering, Baffin Bay and Okhotsk. Nothing much is happening elsewhere.

As of day 2016  106	km2 max lost	%  loss sea max
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	1039707	6.9%
(1) Beaufort_Sea	5246	0.5%
(2) Chukchi_Sea	949	0.1%
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	0	0.0%
(4) Laptev_Sea	0	0.0%
(5) Kara_Sea	9892	1.1%
(6) Barents_Sea	141054	23.5%
(7) Greenland_Sea	0	0.0%
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	370444	22.5%
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	2532	0.3%
(10) Hudson_Bay	2945	0.2%
(11) Central_Arctic	8171	0.3%
(12) Bering_Sea	144767	18.8%
(13) Baltic_Sea	75572	77.4%
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	596646	45.6%
(15) Yellow_Sea	55182	100.0%
(16) Cook_Inlet	5150	100.0%

It should be noted that Greenland Sea set a new max yesterday, and Central Arctic has risen lately near to its max on January 6.  Those seas are more likely to sustain ice extent through the September minimum.

The graph of MASIE data shows 2016 is virtually tied with 2015 and both are below the ten-year average.  SII started to be unreliable after day 97.

Looking at specific seas comparing this year and last:

Ice Extents	2015	2016	Ice Extent
Region	2015106	2016106	km2 Diff.
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	14049007	14037892	-11115
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1070445	1065199	-5246
(2) Chukchi_Sea	966006	965040	-966
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1087137	1087120	-17
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897809	-36
(5) Kara_Sea	918774	925096	6323
(6) Barents_Sea	391374	458325	66951
(7) Greenland_Sea	579909	659712	79804
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	1570273	1274139	-296134
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	853214	850646	-2568
(10) Hudson_Bay	1258284	1257926	-358
(11) Central_Arctic	3219523	3237378	17855
(12) Bering_Sea	649827	623466	-26361
(13) Baltic_Sea	9568	22011	12443
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	574873	712050	137177

Clearly the main difference in 2016 is more rapid melting in Baffin Bay, and Bering Sea down slightly.  Many seas are similar, and some are higher including Barents, Greenland and Okhotsk (a lot).

Summary:

Fasten your seat belts–Arctic melt season is underway.  Alarmists are rooting for more water, less ice, thinking that proves fossil fuels are warming the planet (it doesn’t).  Normal people figure some ice loss is a good thing, because it means the next ice age is another year further away.  Too much ice loss is bad because it may lead ignorant politicians to make stupid energy policies.

Anyway, the melt season is always entertaining and unpredictable, with unforeseen weather events overturning expected results.  Stay tuned.

Note:

On another thread I was asked about some recent scary reports about Greenland’s ice sheet. Since that is land ice, it is not included in sea ice measurements.  There is a balanced and informative article on DMI’s observations:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0414/Greenland-s-early-ice-melt-breaks-records.-What-s-behind-the-thaw

They refer to extent of 1 mm melting of the surface, and note an event in 2012 where 95% of the sheet had 1 mm or more melt water. Snow fall accumulates into ice, and also as the sheet grows, there is some calving of the surplus, also resulting in losses, but not in reducing the total ice.

I am skeptical of alarms about Greenland, as I posted in Greenland is Melting. Really?

The point is, Greenland ice sheet is also dynamic, meaning there is annually both ice melting and ice forming; the net is what matters.