From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

The image above shows 2023 Arctic ice extents from May 1 (day 121) to May end (day 151).  The Pacific basins of Okhotsk (center left) and Bering (bottom left) rapidly turn to open water.  Baffin Bay (center right) melts more slowly. Barents Sea (top center steadily loses ~200k km2 ice extent.  Note Hudson Bay (bottom) mostly keeps its ice, ending the month with 86% of its March max.  And Canadian Archipelago (lower center) retains 97% of its ice. On the left center, the Eurasian coastline remains mostly 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 1.73 M km2 down to 11.72 M km2,  Note that  2023 matched the average May 1,  then retained more ice than usual during May, ending with a decline of 1.24 M km2.  Most of May Sea Ice Index (SII) tracked higher than MASIE, an average 100 km2 extra ice extent..  The other years, including 2006, were 200 to 300k km2 lower than average.

Region	2023151	Day 151 Average	2023-Ave.	2006151	2023-2006
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	11996164	11720243	275920	11425616	570548
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1050178	1007125	43053	1063879	-13700
(2) Chukchi_Sea	926367	866851	59516	907609	18758
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1058013	1065740	-7727	1073889	-15876
(4) Laptev_Sea	840340	827727	12614	856108	-15768
(5) Kara_Sea	761159	832280	-71121	848172	-87013
(6) Barents_Sea	214069	313115	-99046	180906	33163
(7) Greenland_Sea	785442	568692	216750	522040	263402
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	958973	902385	56588	721606	237367
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	831728	813589	18138	800561	31167
(10) Hudson_Bay	1079040	1091081	-12041	989550	89490
(11) Central_Arctic	3243187	3218357	24830	3188696	54491
(12) Bering_Sea	131130	115713	15417	179378	-48248
(13) Baltic_Sea	0	243	-243	720	-720
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	115156	95869	19287	89739	25417

The table shows the distribution of ice in the Arctic basins.  Arctic Ice Note that 2023 exceeds May 2006 by  more than half a Wadham (1M km2 ice extent).

Resources:  Climate Compilation II Arctic Sea Ice