{"id":453665,"date":"2026-07-03T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=453665"},"modified":"2026-07-03T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:45:11","slug":"2026-june-arctic-ice-extents-basically-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=453665","title":{"rendered":"2026 June Arctic Ice Extents Basically Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Russian Nuclear Icebreakers on the Northern Sea Route<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

By Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arctic ice extents are now reported through end of June 2026, and as noted previously the wavy polar vortex has hampered ice formation with incursions of warmer southern air into the Arctic circle. This factor receded in May and June, with extents closing the gap with the averages. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) goes through the Russian shelf seas of Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas on the way to Bering Strait in Beaufort Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As the image from yesterday shows, despite some melting on the margins, the Arctic Ocean core is solid, expecially along the Eurasian NSR seen on the left vertical side. As usual end of June, Hudson Bay (bottom right) is opening to water, as is Baffin Bay (middle right)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below shows the 20-year June averages for Arctic ice extents, along with 2026, 2025 and 2007 as well as SII v.4. Note that on average June loses 2M km2 of ice extent.  By comparison SII v.4 lost 2.3M and MASIE lost 1.7M. In other words, MASIE 2026 ice melt is just two days ahead of average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Note the deficit to average mid-month was ~400k km2 but since then 2026 extents tracked close to average before ending down 142k km2. SII tracked close to MASIE first half of June, but as we have seen in previous months SII v.4 lost a lot of ice in the last two weeks ending 504k km2 lower than MASIE, or half a Wadham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below shows the distibution of ice extents on day 181 across regions of the Arctic ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region<\/strong><\/td>2026181<\/strong><\/td>Dasy 181 ave<\/strong><\/td>2026-Ave.<\/strong><\/td>2007181<\/strong><\/td>2026-2007<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
 (0) Northern_Hemisphere<\/td>9606298<\/td>9748505<\/td>-142207<\/td>9672969<\/td>-66671<\/td><\/tr>
 (1) Beaufort_Sea<\/td>1050375<\/td>932169<\/td>118205<\/td>939209<\/td>111165<\/td><\/tr>
 (2) Chukchi_Sea<\/td>836066<\/td>736703<\/td>99363<\/td>670088<\/td>165978<\/td><\/tr>
 (3) East_Siberian_Sea<\/td>978394<\/td>1013254<\/td>-34859<\/td>901963<\/td>76431<\/td><\/tr>
 (4) Laptev_Sea<\/td>818505<\/td>701277<\/td>117228<\/td>658742<\/td>159762<\/td><\/tr>
 (5) Kara_Sea<\/td>490236<\/td>542563<\/td>-52328<\/td>657478<\/td>-167242<\/td><\/tr>
 (6) Barents_Sea<\/td>16225<\/td>113543<\/td>-97318<\/td>130101<\/td>-113876<\/td><\/tr>
 (7) Greenland_Sea<\/td>418285<\/td>504228<\/td>-85944<\/td>548399<\/td>-130114<\/td><\/tr>
 (8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence<\/td>379841<\/td>522139<\/td>-142297<\/td>450461<\/td>-70619<\/td><\/tr>
 (9) Canadian_Archipelago<\/td>812857<\/td>775268<\/td>37588<\/td>773611<\/td>39246<\/td><\/tr>
 (10) Hudson_Bay<\/td>650307<\/td>683587<\/td>-33280<\/td>718441<\/td>-68134<\/td><\/tr>
 (11) Central_Arctic<\/td>3140155<\/td>3201754<\/td>-61599<\/td>3218999<\/td>-78844<\/td><\/tr>
 (12) Bering_Sea<\/td>17<\/td>8137<\/td>-8120<\/td>981<\/td>-964<\/td><\/tr>
 (13) Baltic_Sea<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>-3<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
 (14) Sea_of_Okhotsk<\/td>13845<\/td>12549<\/td>1296<\/td>2983<\/td>10862<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The table shows that most regions are close to or above the 20-year average. The Eurasian shelf seas of Laptev, Chukchi and Beaufort are in surplus. The majority of the 1.5% overall deficit is from Baffin Bay, Barents, and Greenland seas.  All of those regions will be nearly ice-free end of summer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Illustration by Eleanor Lutz shows Earth\u2019s seasonal climate changes. If played in full screen, the four corners present views from top, bottom and sides. It is a visual representation of scientific datasets measuring ice and snow extents.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The arctic ice extents are now reported through end of June 2026, and as noted previously the wavy polar vortex has hampered ice formation with incursions of warmer southern air into the Arctic circle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":453683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691819671,691843918,691831126,691821637],"class_list":["post-453665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arctic-ice","tag-masie-2026","tag-northern-sea-route-nsr","tag-polar-vortex","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ChatGPT-Russian-Nuclear-Icebreakers-on-the-Northern-Sea-Route.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1U1b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":448745,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448745","url_meta":{"origin":453665,"position":0},"title":"2026 May Arctic Ice Extents Closer to\u00a0Normal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/05\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The arctic ice extents are now reported through end of May 2026, and as noted previously the wavy polar vortex has hampered ice formation with incusions of warmer southern air into the Arctic circle. 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