Bering Ice March Madness

In February the media breathlessly told us that Bering Sea ice has melted away, and thus Arctic ice is doomed. Now we see that reports of the demise were premature. More surprising than the early retreat, Bering ice roared back in the last two weeks, and continues to grow even after the overall NH ice extent peaked

Two Weeks of Growing Bering Ice: The above image shows the last two weeks of dramatic ice growth in Bering with only minor melting in Okhotsk. Bering Sea on the right added 250k km2 and has effectively sealed off Chukchi inside the Arctic. Meanwhile on the left Okhotsk ice seesawed, ending up 150k km2 lower, but still at 88% of 2019 maximum.
The graph below shows March progress in ice extent peaking and beginning the melt season.As noted before, the month started with a sharp increase nearly reaching average and 15M km2. After March 12, ice declined steadily as is normal after mid-March. 2019 extent is running lower than the 12 year average, but slightly higher than other recent years. SII is showing about 100k km2 less ice than MASIE.

The table below shows the distribution of ice in the various Arctic basins.

Region	2019082	Day 082 Average	2019-Ave.	2018082	2019-2018
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	14600645	14891081	-290436	14511954	88692
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1070291	1070115	176	1070445	-154
(2) Chukchi_Sea	966006	965595	411	966006	0
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1087137	1086844	293	1087137	0
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897552	293	897845	0
(5) Kara_Sea	926462	917591	8871	934807	-8344
(6) Barents_Sea	681050	653698	27352	720725	-39675
(7) Greenland_Sea	552178	642867	-90689	539109	13069
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	1431122	1509559	-78437	1346761	84361
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	853337	852881	456	853109	229
(10) Hudson_Bay	1260903	1255967	4937	1260838	66
(11) Central_Arctic	3227734	3227309	426	3158495	69240
(12) Bering_Sea	446151	773234	-327083	345861	100291
(13) Baltic_Sea	41886	87497	-45611	135848	-93962
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	1150521	933366	217155	1183119	-32598

The table shows how 2019 is 290k km2 or 2% below the 12-year average. Most basins are matching average extent, including Barents Sea edging slightly ahead of average. Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay are below average. Despite recent gains, Bering ice is 327k km2 in deficit to average, nearly the difference in overall NH extent. Meanwhile Okhotsk is 217k km2 surplus to average, partially offsetting Bering.