September 16, 2021: Over the past week the sea ice has now decreased from last week by a much lower rate of 1.50% from the level on 09/09/2021 of 4.812 M km2 to 4.740 M km2 for this week. The rate of loss at this time is about even with that in 2017, however, and well above the all-time low season of 2012. It looks like we are very close to the end of the ice loss season and a record for this season is not in the cards. In fact, the sea ice extent at this time of year is probably the highest it has been over the past few years.
