Previous posts reported how Arctic ice was growing faster than average as well as last year.  Remarkably, several regions have already exceeded their maximum ice extents last March, and overall, Arctic ice is 98% of 2021 maximum with six weeks of freezing season remaining.

The animation shows ice growing the second half of January, notably reaching 1.32M km2 in Baffin Bay, right center, exceeding 2021 max.  Greenland Sea, center top, added 144k km2 to reach 710k km2, also greater than last year’s max.  And at bottom left Bering Sea reached 741k km2, 116% of last years max.

This year began with a surplus and ended January still 230k km2 higher.  The gap over 2021 is 465k km2, nearly half a Wadham. SII dipped and then rose to match MASIE before a drop yesterday.

The table shows that surpluses in Barents, Greenland and Bering seas more than offset a deficit to average in Okhotsk.  In the latter case, ice has finally begun to build up toward a normal extent for this period. With an overall extent of 14.6M km2, prospects are good for maxing higher than 15M km2 by mid March.