From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

The image above shows 2023 Arctic ice extents from Mid April (day 106) to Mid May (day 135). As usual, the LIFO pattern is observed: ice that is Last In is the First Out. The Pacific basins of Okhotsk (top left) and Bering (bottom left) rapidly turn to open water. Baffin Bay (lower right) melts more slowly. Barents Sea (top center loses ice extent steadily. Note Hudson Bay (bottom) keeps its ice, and Canadian Archipelago (lower center) retains most of its ice. On the left center, the Eurasian coastline remains frozen.

The graph below shows 2023 compared to 17 year average and some recent years for this time period.

Firstly, on average this period shows ice declining 1.44 M km2 down to 12.68M km2,  Note that  2023 matched the average in April, then retained more ice than usual during first two weeks of May. Sea Ice Index (SII) was close to MASIE throughout..  The other years, including 2007, were ~300k km2 lower than average.

Region	2023135	Day 135 Average	2023-Ave.	2007135	2023-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	12771477	12677903	93574	12431928	339549
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1050531	1046418	4113	1057649	-7118
(2) Chukchi_Sea	943942	926464	17478	953491	-9549
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1085822	1081321	4501	1075314	10508
(4) Laptev_Sea	897060	881069	15991	828738	68322
(5) Kara_Sea	919027	879799	39228	876053	42974
(6) Barents_Sea	407569	418431	-10862	351553	56016
(7) Greenland_Sea	730714	619664	111050	564865	165849
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	979333	1076523	-97190	1018780	-39447
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	841610	839708	1902	830604	11006
(10) Hudson_Bay	1153016	1186552	-33536	1167310	-14294
(11) Central_Arctic	3247995	3223255	24740	3234305	13690
(12) Bering_Sea	296036	301878	-5842	298268	-2231
(13) Baltic_Sea	6134	7668	-1534	6368	-234
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	211027	186778	24249	164833	46194

The table shows the distribution of ice in the Arctic basins.  The main deficits to average are Baffin and Hudson Bays, more than offset by surpluses in Kara and Greenland Seas. Most other regions are surplus with a few slighlty negative.

Resources:  Climate Compilation II Arctic Sea Ice