Arctic sea ice seasonal minimum reached - 2016

Daily Arctic sea ice extent 2002-2016

This is the joint-2^nd lowest minimum in the satellite record (Figure 2), virtually identical to the 4.15 million sq km recorded in 2007. It is 0.75 million square km above the record low extent of 3.39 million square km, which occurred in 2012.

Regional conditions

This year, extent at minimum was particularly low in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska (Figure 3), which is likely to be associated with a very early start to melting in this region.  It was also very low in the Laptev Sea north of Siberia, due to frequent movement of warm air from lower latitudes over this region during the summer.  Some patches of dispersed ice remained between these two regions, in the East Siberian Sea.