from the National Snow and Ice Data Center website…

Average ice extent for April 2014 was the fifth lowest for the month in the satellite record. Through 2014, the linear rate of decline for April ice extent is -2.4% per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average.

Of course, ice levels in spring and winter have shown themselves to be a poor predictor of ice cover at the height of the melt season, but the overall trend for this month, as it has been for every month, has been steadily downward. In spite of random yearly variations, the general overall trend is for there to be less and less sea ice in the arctic ocean year after year, a trend which has been evident since we began keeping satellite records thirty years ago.

Check the “Archives” pull down menu at http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ and see for yourself. For every month of the year, from max to min ice cover (March: -2.6%/decade, to September: -13.7%/decade), the slope is consistently negative.