The arctic ice extents are now reported through end of June 2026, and as noted previously the wavy polar vortex has hampered ice formation with incursions of warmer southern air into the Arctic circle.  This factor receded in May and June, with extents closing the gap with the averages. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) goes through the Russian shelf seas of Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas on the way to Bering Strait in Beaufort Sea.

As the image from yesterday shows, despite some melting on the margins, the Arctic Ocean core is solid, expecially along the Eurasian NSR seen on the left vertical side. As usual end of June, Hudson Bay (bottom right) is opening to water, as is Baffin Bay (middle right)

The chart below shows the 20-year May averages for Arctic ice extents, along with 2026, 2025 and 2007 as well as SII v.4. Note that on average June loses 2M km2 of ice extent.  By comparison SII v.4 lost 2.3M and MASIE lost 1.7M. In other words, MASIE 2026 ice melt is just two days ahead of average.

Note the deficit to average mid-month was ~400k km2 but since then 2026 extents tracked close to average before ending down 142k km2. SII tracked close to MASIE first half of June, but as we have seen in previous months SII v.4 lost a lot of ice in the last two weeks ending 504k km2 lower than MASIE, or half a Wadham.

The table below shows the distibution of ice extents on day 181 across regions of the Arctic ocean.

Region	2026181	Dasy 181 ave	2026-Ave.	2007181	2026-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	9606298	9748505	-142207	9672969	-66671
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1050375	932169	118205	939209	111165
(2) Chukchi_Sea	836066	736703	99363	670088	165978
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	978394	1013254	-34859	901963	76431
(4) Laptev_Sea	818505	701277	117228	658742	159762
(5) Kara_Sea	490236	542563	-52328	657478	-167242
(6) Barents_Sea	16225	113543	-97318	130101	-113876
(7) Greenland_Sea	418285	504228	-85944	548399	-130114
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	379841	522139	-142297	450461	-70619
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	812857	775268	37588	773611	39246
(10) Hudson_Bay	650307	683587	-33280	718441	-68134
(11) Central_Arctic	3140155	3201754	-61599	3218999	-78844
(12) Bering_Sea	17	8137	-8120	981	-964
(13) Baltic_Sea	0	3	-3	0	0
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	13845	12549	1296	2983	10862

The table shows that most regions are close to or above the 20-year average. The Eurasian shelf seas of Laptev, Chukchi and Beaufort are in surplus. The majority of the 1.5% overall deficit is from Baffin Bay, Barents, and Greenland seas.  All of those regions will be nearly ice-free end of summer.

 

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 ice and snow extents.