In May, most of the Arctic ocean basins are still frozen over, while the melting of ice extent is underway in the marginal regions.   During May, on average according to MASIE, Arctic ice extents lose 1.7 M km2, and 2024 matched that.  The few basins where open water appears this time of year tend to fluctuate and alternate waxing and waning.  Unusual were the much greater extents estimated by SII (Sea Ice Index, the satellite dataset)

The graph below shows for the month of May patterns for ice extents on average, this year and some other years of note.

The graph shows the 18-year average loss for April is 1.7M km2.  2024 tracked nearly average this month throughout. Remarkably, SII showed higher all month, ~200k km2 on average and 315k km2 higher than MASIE yesterday. Other recent years have been nearly average, while 2006 ended with a large defict of ~300k km2 below average.

Region	2024152	Day 152 Ave	2024-Ave.	2006152	2024-2006
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	11720589	11685746	34843	11391134	329455
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1015932	1008887	7045	1063879	-47947
(2) Chukchi_Sea	913510	866924	46586	907609	5900
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1072016	1065772	6244	1073889	-1873
(4) Laptev_Sea	828093	828959	-866	856108	-28016
(5) Kara_Sea	885435	822185	63250	848172	37263
(6) Barents_Sea	444502	301553	142948	180906	263596
(7) Greenland_Sea	641881	584813	57067	522040	119841
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	880982	888621	-7639	721606	159376
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	777801	813422	-35621	800561	-22760
(10) Hudson_Bay	902359	1082841	-180482	968121	-65762
(11) Central_Arctic	3232002	3219651	12351	3188696	43306
(12) Bering_Sea	102241	112773	-10532	166326	-64085
(13) Baltic_Sea	285	177	108	720	-435
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	22088	87670	-65582	89739	-67651

The table shows regional ice extents in km2.  Note that Hudson and Baffin Bays have started melting, and Hudson is ahead of normal and will likely go to open water in a few weeks. Sea of Okhotsk on the Pacific side is 66k in deficit, with little ice left to lose.  Note the huge surplus in Barents sea on the European side. Everywhere else is mostly in surplus, especially the seas of Barents, Greenland and Kara.  2006 had 329k km2 less ice extent than 2024 (one third of a Wadham).

The polar bears had a Valentine Day’s wish for Arctic Ice.

And Arctic Ice loves them back, returning every year so the bears can roam and hunt for seals.

Footnote:

Seesaw accurately describes Arctic ice in another sense:  The ice we see now is not the same ice we saw previously.  It is better to think of the Arctic as an ice blender than as an ice cap, explained in the post The Great Arctic Ice Exchange.