{"id":426276,"date":"2026-02-15T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T12:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426276"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T17:27:32","slug":"arctic-ice-nearly-average-mid-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426276","title":{"rendered":"Arctic Ice Nearly Average mid-February\u00a02026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Science Matters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The arctic ice extents are now reported through mid-February 2026, showing rising refreezing rates bringing Arctic ice extents within 200k km2 of the 20-year average.  Remarkably, the last two days virtually matched the 2025 annual extent maximum of 14.48M km2 on day 80 of that year, compared to 14.44 on day 43 in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below shows the 20-year averages for Arctic ice extents mid-Febrauary along with 2026 and 2025, as well as SII v.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As stated previously, likely due to a wavy polar vortex, MASIE 2026 refroze slowly in January reaching a deficit of 622k km2 on day 26.\u00a0 Since then, ice grew at a higher rate, ending this period 176k km2 below average, or 1% down. Note that compared to day 44 last year, 2026 ice is more than half a Wadham greater, 656k km2.\u00a0 And as mentioned above, 2025 will not match yesterday until day 80. Note SII v.4 tracks lower than MASIE throughout, on average in deficit by 242K km2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region<\/strong><\/td>2026044<\/strong><\/td>Average day 44<\/strong><\/td>2026-Ave.<\/strong><\/td>2025044<\/strong><\/td>2026-2025<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
 (0) Northern_Hemisphere<\/td>14427481<\/td>14603337<\/td>-175856<\/td>13771518.64<\/td>655962<\/td><\/tr>
 (1) Beaufort_Sea<\/td>1071070<\/td>1070384<\/td>686<\/td>1071000.73<\/td>69<\/td><\/tr>
 (2) Chukchi_Sea<\/td>966006<\/td>965785<\/td>222<\/td>965989.12<\/td>17<\/td><\/tr>
 (3) East_Siberian_Sea<\/td>1087137<\/td>1087132<\/td>5<\/td>1087137.23<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
 (4) Laptev_Sea<\/td>897845<\/td>897838<\/td>7<\/td>897844.8<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
 (5) Kara_Sea<\/td>935023<\/td>909437<\/td>25586<\/td>911762.37<\/td>23261<\/td><\/tr>
 (6) Barents_Sea<\/td>649606<\/td>566421<\/td>83185<\/td>434920.5<\/td>214686<\/td><\/tr>
 (7) Greenland_Sea<\/td>772110<\/td>625671<\/td>146439<\/td>635758.41<\/td>136351<\/td><\/tr>
 (8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence<\/td>1040295<\/td>1429059<\/td>-388764<\/td>1335264.28<\/td>-294969<\/td><\/tr>
 (9) Canadian_Archipelago<\/td>854931<\/td>853531<\/td>1399<\/td>854877.96<\/td>53<\/td><\/tr>
 (10) Hudson_Bay<\/td>1260870<\/td>1260595<\/td>276<\/td>1260903.34<\/td>-33<\/td><\/tr>
 (11) Central_Arctic<\/td>3235930<\/td>3204874<\/td>31056<\/td>3195022.33<\/td>40907<\/td><\/tr>
 (12) Bering_Sea<\/td>689769<\/td>671512<\/td>18256<\/td>333643.58<\/td>356125<\/td><\/tr>
 (13) Baltic_Sea<\/td>155657<\/td>88990<\/td>66666<\/td>35593.84<\/td>120063<\/td><\/tr>
 (14) Sea_of_Okhotsk<\/td>742439<\/td>914421<\/td>-171982<\/td>720462<\/td>21977<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The table shows that most regions are close to or above the 20-year average.  Two major deficits are in Baffin Bay and Sea of Okhotsk, partly offset by several smaller surpluses, mostly in Greenland Sea, Barents and Bering seas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The arctic ice extents are now reported through mid-February 2026, showing rising refreezing rates bringing Arctic ice extents within 200k km2 of the 20-year average.\u00a0 Remarkably, the last two days virtually matched the 2025 annual extent maximum of 14.48M km2 on day 80 of that year, compared to 14.44 on day 43 in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":426290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819671,691822451,691821637],"class_list":{"0":"post-426276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-arctic-ice","9":"tag-masie","10":"tag-polar-vortex","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OIGP-4.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1MTq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":429192,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=429192","url_meta":{"origin":426276,"position":0},"title":"Vortex Slows Arctic Ice Recovery 2026 February\u00a0End","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The arctic ice extents are now reported through February 2026, early on showing rising refreezing rates bringing Arctic ice extents within 200k km2 of the 20-year average. 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Arctic Ice Tops 10 Wadhams in November 2022","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/11\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Arctic Ice Roaring Back Following Halloween The animation shows Arctic ice recovery from October 10 to October 31, 2022. On the lower center right, Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) freezes over entirely more than doubling up to 832k km2, 97% of its maximum.\u00a0 Center bottom Beaufort Sea closes off the NW\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-611.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-611.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-611.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-611.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=426276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426291,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426276\/revisions\/426291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/426290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=426276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=426276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=426276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}