The animation shows Arctic ice extents on day 304 (end of October) for the years 2012 through yesterday 2021.  Note the variability from year to year on the CanAm (left side) with the Beaufort Sea at the top, Canadian Archipelago center left, and Baffin Bay, lower left between Greenland and Newfoundland. More noticeable are the Russian shelf seas fluctuations on the right side.  Some years, like 2020, there is still open water, but this year those seas are frozen over, including from the top Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara Seas down to bottom right.

The graph below shows October daily ice extents for 2021 compared to 14 year averages, and some years of note.

The black line shows during October on average Arctic ice extents increase ~3.4M km2 from ~4.9M km2 up to ~8.3M km2.  The 2021 cyan MASIE line started the month ~500k km2 above average and on day 304 retained a surplus of ~160k km2.  The Sea Ice Index in orange (SII from NOAA) started with the same deficit, then lagged behind in the last two weeks, before ending ~100k km2 lower than MASIE. 2019 and 2020 were well below average at this stage of the ice recovery.

Why is this important?  All the claims of global climate emergency depend on dangerously higher temperatures, lower sea ice, and rising sea levels.  The lack of additional warming is documented in a post Adios, Global Warming

The lack of acceleration in sea levels along coastlines has been discussed also.  See USCS Warnings of Coastal Flooding

Also, a longer term perspective is informative:

The table below shows the distribution of Sea Ice on day 304 across the Arctic Regions, on average, this year and 2020.

Region	2021304	Day 304 Average	2021-Ave.	2020304	2021-2020
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	8528046	8369146	158900	6954249	1573797
(1) Beaufort_Sea	982244	946489	35755	1044967	-62723
(2) Chukchi_Sea	659384	436299	223085	369981	289403
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1086959	909416	177543	373761	713197
(4) Laptev_Sea	894716	831110	63606	283776	610940
(5) Kara_Sea	626536	444754	181781	269583	356952
(6) Barents_Sea	55711	77133	-21422	14206	41505
(7) Greenland_Sea	360759	415579	-54820	463525	-102766
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	107176	269121	-161945	232788	-125611
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	557042	788762	-231720	802238	-245196
(10) Hudson_Bay	5061	82352	-77292	73773	-68712
(11) Central_Arctic	3160959	3158164	2794	3023876	137083

The overall surplus to average is 159k km2, (2%).  Note large surpluses of ice in BCE (Beaufort, Chukchi and East Siberian seas).  as well as in Laptev and Kara on the Russian coast. The main deficits to average are in Baffin Bay and CAA, more than offset by surpluses elsewhere. Note that 2021 ice extent exceeds that of 2020 by 1.6M km2, most of the difference being in East Siberian, Laptev and Kara Seas.

Illustration by Eleanor Lutz shows Earth’s seasonal climate changes. If played in full screen, the four corners present views from top, bottom and sides. It is a visual representation of scientific datasets measuring Arctic ice extents.