That Northwest Passage early explorers dreamed of is closer to reality. Take a look at the Arctic/

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It’s not a record low. It’s actually the seventh lowest amount of Arctic sea ice since measurement began. That’s not really indicative of a trend, as “climate” is not about what happens one year or another.  It does provide a fascinating look at what’s happening as the Arctic sea ice melt begins, and how far it actually went.

This is from the non-political National Snow and Ice Data Center, working with the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Arctic sea ice extent for March averaged 14.55 million square kilometers (5.62 million square miles), tying with 2011 for the seventh lowest extent in the 40-year satellite record. This is 880,000 square kilometers (340,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average and 260,000 square kilometers (100,400 square miles) above the lowest March average, which occurred in 2017.

The Bering Sea, which had been nearly ice free at the beginning of March, saw gains in extent through the middle of the month. However, those gains were short lived as extent dropped sharply during the last week of March. The Bering Sea typically reaches its maximum ice extent in late March or early April. This year, the maximum occurred in late January and was 34.5 percent below the 1981 to 2010 average maximum. These late-March sea ice extent losses in the Bering Sea accelerated the decline of total Arctic sea ice extent. By April 1, Arctic extent was at a record low for that date.