anlomedad<p>Cool! <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.nz/@kevpluck" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kevpluck</span></a></span> has interactive sea ice charts. You can click through the individual years, see a selected date and things. <br><a href="https://seaice.visuals.earth" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">seaice.visuals.earth</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p>His <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Arctic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Arctic</span></a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/SeaIce" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SeaIce</span></a> goes through to February 20 while Zack Labe lags 3days. </p><p>Comparable years of such low sea ice extent like this year were 2017 and 2018. <br>And we in Germany do recall these years in particular as heading into bone dry summers. A special jetstream blocking in 2018 caused crop loss from heat or drought in all 3 major global bread baskets simultaneously, USA, Europe and Russia.</p><p>Let's see whether this year's sea ice extent is a harbinger to 2018-like summers and harvests. <br>Oh, but if there is a connection, maybe that's dependent on which basins experienced the record low ice. <br>Basins aren't in Kevin's app. </p><p>Zack's basins show: this year, it was first the East-Canadian Hudson Bay, and then the Pacific Bering Sea near Alaska. <a href="https://zacklabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/nsidc_sie_regionals_v2_lines-3.png" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zacklabe.com/wp-content/upload</span><span class="invisible">s/2025/02/nsidc_sie_regionals_v2_lines-3.png</span></a> </p><p>And where did the overall low extent originate in February 2018? <br>Data here <a href="https://noaadata.apps.nsidc.org/NOAA/G02135/seaice_analysis/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">noaadata.apps.nsidc.org/NOAA/G</span><span class="invisible">02135/seaice_analysis/</span></a></p><p>Charts show sea ice extent km2 daily anomaly over 1991-2020. </p><p>The 2 Pacific Arctic basins and the European Basins Kara and Barents Sea 2018 and this year were also low-ish in seaice extent through to mid February. </p><p>Chukchi Sea 2018 started with record lows but recovered later, normal this year. <br>Hudson Bay 2018 was normal, this year started record low but normal since mid January. <br>Baffin Bay 2018 was normal but rather low this year. <br>Greenland Sea 2018 was record low, this year was about normal. <br>Gulf of St Lawrence 2018 was normal but rather low this year.</p><p>So. Not very similar, this year and 2018. But European and Pacific basins are. </p><p>I'll try to update it in 4 weeks time.</p>