April 18, 2024:  The  sea ice has decreased this week at a slightly higher rate of 1.61% (as opposed to last week’s decrease rate of 1.18%), from the level on 04/11/2024 of 14.314 M km² to 14.084 M km² for this week. The change to the sea ice melt season is now firmly in place. 

The negative sea ice anomaly this week was less than the anomaly of -0.206 M km² on 04/11/2024 to a lesser negative anomaly of -0.184 M km² on 04/18/2024, and so less anomalously negative for this time of year.