The sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean has reached its maximum cover this week, or is extremely close to it. A look at the interactive graph will give you a better idea, flip different years on and off to compare with the SIE max in other years.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

It appears 2017 is in a virtual tie for “lowest maximum” with 2016 and 2015. Note that the maximum of 2012, the year which showed the greatest summer ice loss, was way above the current winter value in mid March.

Does this mean we’re going to break any low ice records this summer? We can’t tell for sure, but it is sure that a lot less ice will have to melt this year than in 2012 in order to hit another all-time low.