In June 2018, Arctic ice extent held up against previous years despite the Pacific basins of Bering and Okhotsk being ice-free. The Arctic core is showing little change, perhaps due to increased thickness (volume) as reported by DMI. The image above shows ice extents on day 179 for years 2007 through 2018.
The graph below shows how the Arctic extent has faired in June compared to the 11 year average and to some years of interest.
Note that 2018 started June well below the 11 year average and below other recent years. As of day 179 (yesterday) ice extent is matching average and 2007, and slightly above 2017, with further losses to come in previous years. SII 2018 is tracking the same as MASIE this month.
The table below shows ice extents by regions comparing 2018 with 11-year average (2007 to 2017 inclusive) and 2017.
| Region | 2018179 | Day 179 Average |
2018-Ave. | 2007179 | 2018-2007 |
| (0) Northern_Hemisphere | 10029935 | 10054734 | -24798 | 10034293 | -4358 |
| (1) Beaufort_Sea | 1015808 | 919074 | 96734 | 948463 | 67345 |
| (2) Chukchi_Sea | 711178 | 732616 | -21437 | 680534 | 30645 |
| (3) East_Siberian_Sea | 1053171 | 1032249 | 20923 | 963850 | 89321 |
| (4) Laptev_Sea | 647574 | 745700 | -98126 | 663276 | -15702 |
| (5) Kara_Sea | 726226 | 598140 | 128086 | 665920 | 60307 |
| (6) Barents_Sea | 60948 | 134229 | -73281 | 177419 | -116471 |
| (7) Greenland_Sea | 356614 | 552157 | -195543 | 627602 | -270989 |
| (8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence | 714402 | 552083 | 162319 | 531706 | 182696 |
| (9) Canadian_Archipelago | 794355 | 783057 | 11298 | 775033 | 19322 |
| (10) Hudson_Bay | 900609 | 761919 | 138690 | 777550 | 123058 |
| (11) Central_Arctic | 3047677 | 3217803 | -170125 | 3216654 | -168977 |
| (12) Bering_Sea | 185 | 6350 | -6165 | 1080 | -895 |
| (13) Baltic_Sea | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 | 0 |
| (14) Sea_of_Okhotsk | 0 | 17972 | -17972 | 3531 | -3531 |
2018 is 25k km2 below average, entirely due to Okhotsk plus Bering being ice-free. Greenland Sea and Barents are down, offset by surpluses in Beaufort, Kara, Baffin and Hudson Bays.
Science Matters 
Greenland and central arctic remain the main concerns being the ones to usually melt last they are worryingly smaller than I would like though as you say they are are extremely thick which should slow ice melt.
An interesting race to the bottom with the Arctic forecast to be extra cold for the next 2 weeks.
A few 100,000 melts as the outer seas vanish.
Fingers crossed melting is extremely slow and the central and Greenland ares have minimal damage.
Thanks for your regular updates. Always appreciated.
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Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
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