Sea ice concentration within the ice pack was generally quite high in all areas, with the exception of the Sea of Okhotsk and the northern Barents Sea where the ice pack was more open.

Lawrence, with smaller retreats in the Barents and Bering Seas. Ice extent was slightly below average in almost all areas, but particularly in the Sea of Okhotsk and in the Gulf of St. March monthly average extent was 990,000 square kilometers (382,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average of 15.43 million square kilometers (5.96 million square miles), but 150,000 square kilometers (57,900 square miles) above the record low set in March 2017 (Figure 1b).Īfter the March 6 seasonal maximum, extent declined for a week, but then remained almost constant during the second half of the month. The March 2023 average Arctic sea ice extent was 14.44 million square kilometers (5.58 million square miles), the sixth lowest March 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. The graph above shows Arctic sea ice extent as of April 4, 2023, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years and the record low year.

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