From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

The animation shows the continuing growth of Arctic ice extent during November 2023, from day 305 to yesterday, day 334.  For all of the fuss over the September minimum, little is said about Arctic ice growing back rapidly; that’s 4 Wadhams in October, plus another 2,2M in Nov to total 10.6M km2, or 10.6 Wadhams.  The Russian side on the left froze over in October, and now at the center bottom you can see Beaufort sea and Canadian Archipelago icing over completely. At top center Kara and Barents are adding normal ice extents. On the right side are the two lagging basins: Baffin and Hudson Bays, though freezing has started in Hudson bay in the last ten days.  That basin is shallow and likely to freeze over in the next two weeks.

The graph below shows the 30 days of November 2023 compared to the 17 year average (2006 to 2022 inclusive), to SII (Sea Ice Index) and some notable years.

Taking the average extent for the final 5 days of October 2023 compared to same for end of November, the added ice extent is 2.2M km2.  The growth slowed at the end resulting in a 290k km2 deficit to average.  Sea Ice Index (SII) is ~200k km2 lower than MASIE. 

The table below shows the distribution of ice in the Arctic Ocean basins.

Region	2023334	Day 334	2023-Ave.	2007334	2023-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	10626375	10921303	-294928	11009948	-383574
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1070966	1069463	1503	1058872	12094
(2) Chukchi_Sea	722477	788533	-66056	687829	34649
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1087137	1083567	3570	1082015	5122
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897822	23	897613	232
(5) Kara_Sea	799640	792930	6710	826319	-26679
(6) Barents_Sea	262074	248861	13213	216525	45549
(7) Greenland_Sea	607148	533255	73893	618844	-11696
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	591970	671268	-79298	708497	-116527
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	854826	853266	1560	850249	4577
(10) Hudson_Bay	379047	574308	-195261	751382	-372335
(11) Central_Arctic	3220511	3192296	28215	3183073	37438
(12) Bering_Sea	47829	145731	-97902	72645	-24816
(13) Baltic_Sea	16936	3593	13343	0	16936
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	63947	62153	1794	53052	10895

As shown in the table above, the deficit is due to lagging growth in Hudson and Baffin Bays, along with less ice in Chukchi and Bering Seas. Typically these basins are among the last to freeze.