NSIDC - Arctic Sea Ice In May 2nd-Lowest In 39-Year Satellite Record; Svalbard Temps 6C Above Avg.

Arctic sea ice extent for May 2018 was 12.2 million square kilometers (4.7 million square miles). This was the second lowest May extent in the 39-year satellite record, and is 310,000 square kilometers (120,000 square miles) above May 2016, the record low for the month. Compared to May 2016, the ice cover remained slightly more extensive in the Barents and Kara Seas, within Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and the southern Beaufort Sea, but less extensive in the Chukchi and East Greenland Seas.

In Svalbard, the average temperature for May 2018 was 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. By the end of the month, the north and west coasts of Svalbard were largely ice-free and a tongue of open water east of the islands extended northeast to Franz Joseph Land. According to NSIDC data, open water stretched as far north as ~82 degrees N at the end of May.

In the Chukchi Sea, open water developed to the west of Point Barrow, Alaska throughout the month. This may be in part a result of the inflow of warm waters from the Pacific, where sea surface temperatures were higher than average. It may also be due to the general lack of sea ice in the region that allows the ocean to readily absorb the sun’s energy. Ice retreat was also substantial within the Sea of Okhotsk, and little ice remains in the region. Hudson Bay began to open up, with a significant area of open water in the northwest sector of the bay.

The atmospheric pattern (Figure 2b) for May was characterized by a region of above average sea level pressure centered over the Fenno-Scandinavian Peninsula and below average pressure centered over Greenland. This pattern helped to funnel warm winds from the south into the Barents Sea sector favoring retreat of ice. Air temperatures at the 925 hPa level (about 2,500 feet above sea level) in the Barents Sea were up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average (not shown). On the Pacific side, departures from average sea level pressure were small and a fairly typical Beaufort Sea High and Aleutian Low pattern reigned for much of the month. Overall it was warm across the Arctic Ocean with temperatures at the 925 hPa level ranging between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius (4 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for the month. By contrast, conditions over land regions surrounding the Arctic were relatively cool. Parts of Central Siberia and Nunavut in northern Quebec saw temperatures more than 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) below average. However, Europe, eastern Asia and western North America were warmer than usual.

EDIT

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/