Alaska Climate Research Center

The Alaska State Climate Center
The Alaska State Climate Center
The Alaska State Climate Center

Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: February 6, 2025

February 6, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has had another surprising decrease this week at a rate of 0.45% (as opposed to last week’s decrease rate of 0.28%), from the level on 01/30/2025 of 13.454 M km2 to 13.393 M km2 for this week.  Not really sure what to make of that at the moment, but that’s two weeks in a row now. I am not quite ready to call it a seasonal shift to the melting season just yet as the decrease rates have been relatively small, but temps across the Arctic (atmosphere and ocean) have been pretty above normal warm this season. This is the earliest turnaround in the ice extent from growth to melting that I have seen, and what is it that the philosopher once said, “One time is an outlier; twice is coincidence, and three times is a pattern…”; and so we’ll have to see what holds for next week… The negative sea ice anomaly this week was higher than the anomaly of -1.0153 M km2 on 01/30/2025 to a greater negative anomaly of -1.2833 M km2 on 02/06/2025, and so more anomalously negative for this time of year than last week.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Archive

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: January 31, 2025

January 31, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has had a surprising decrease this week at a rate of 0.28% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 1.49%), from the level on 01/23/2025 of 13.494 M km2 to 13.454 M km2 for this week.  This is probably a temporary anomaly and not a seasonal shift to the melting season. Temperatures across the Arctic have been far above normal this month. It will be interesting to see how the sea ice develops in the coming weeks. The negative sea ice anomaly this week was higher than the anomaly of -0.7538 M km2 on 01/23/2025 to a greater negative anomaly of -1.0153 M km2 on 01/30/2025, and so more anomalously negative for this time of year than last week. 

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: January 23, 2025

January 23, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has continued to increase this week and at a greater rate of 2.78% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 1.49%), from the level on 01/16/2025 of 13.119 M km2 to 13.494 M km2 for this week.  The negative sea ice anomaly this week was lower than the anomaly of -0.8913 M km2 on 01/16/2025 to a lesser negative anomaly of -0.7538 M km2 on 01/23/2025, and so less anomalously negative for this time of year than last week. 

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: January 16, 2025

January 16, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has continued to increase this week but at a lesser rate of 1.49% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 3.09%), from the level on 01/09/2025 of 12.924 M km2 to 13.119 M km2 for this week. The negative sea ice anomaly this week was greater than the anomaly of -0.8193 M km2 on 01/09/2025 to a greater negative anomaly of -0.8913 M km2 on 01/16/2025, and so more anomalously negative for this time of year than last week. 

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: January 11, 2025

January 11, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has continued to increase this week but at a lesser rate of 3.09% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 3.25%), from the level on 01/02/2025 of 12.525 M km2 to 12.924 M km2 for this week. The negative sea ice anomaly this week was lower than the anomaly of -0.9032 M km2 on 01/02/2025 to a lesser negative anomaly of -0.8193 M km2 on 01/09/2025, and so less anomalously negative for this time of year than last week.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: January 2, 2025

January 2, 2025: The Arctic sea ice has continued to increase this week but at a lesser rate of 3.25% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 3.65%), from the level on 12/26/2024 of 12.118 M km2 to 12.525 M km2 for this week. The negative sea ice anomaly this week was lower than the anomaly of -0.9327 M km2 on 12/26/2024 to a lesser negative anomaly of -0.9032 M km2 on 01/02/2025, and so less anomalously negative for this time of year than last week.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: December 26, 2024

December 26, 2024: The Arctic sea ice has continued to increase this week but at a lesser rate of 3.65% (as opposed to last week’s increase rate of 5.77%), from the level on 12/19/2024 of 11.676 M km2 to 12.118 M km2 for this week. The negative sea ice anomaly this week was slightly lower than the anomaly of -0.9345 M km2 on 12/19/2024 to a lesser negative anomaly of -0.9327 M km2 on 12/26/2024, and so a bit less anomalously negative for this time of year than last week.