
Toward the end of the month, extent reached the lowest decile of daily extents as assessed over the satellite record. The rate of sea ice loss through April was only 20,600 square kilometers (8,000 square miles) per day, well below the 1981 to 2010 average of 36,400 square kilometers (14,000 square miles) per day. The average monthly extent was 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average of 14.69 million square kilometers (5.67 million square miles), but 560,000 square kilometers (216,000 square miles) above the record low set in April 2019 (Figure 1b). The April 2023 average Arctic sea ice extent was 13.99 million square kilometers (5.40 million square miles), tied with 2004 as the tenth lowest April in the satellite record (Figure 1a). Sea Ice Index data.Ĭredit: National Snow and Ice Data Center The gray areas around the median line show the interquartile and interdecile ranges of the data. 2023 is shown in blue, 2022 in green, 2021 in orange, 2020 in brown, 2019 in magenta, and 2012 in dashed brown.



The graph above shows Arctic sea ice extent as of May 2, 2023, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years and the record low year.
