The previous June Arctic ice update suggested that shallow basins on the Atlantic side will now lose their ice rapidly.  The animation above shows in the last 10 days how much open water has appeared in Hudson Bay (bottom right) and Baffin Bay (center right).  Just those two regions combined lost ~500k km2 of ice in 1.5 weeks and are now holding ~30% of their maximums.  The images also show little change elsewhere.  This is all normal melting of Arctic drift ice, presently at 63% ( 9.5 M km2) of last March maximum, heading toward the September minimum.

 

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 and snow cover.