Bishop Hill have a post stating “Isn’t the Arctic refreeze quick this year?” I’ve done a quick check on the rate that the ice is refreezing this winter, compared to the previous years. It’s not a terribly scientific method – just copying this years trajectory and moving it to match the previous years by eye.

It turns out that the refreezing is occurring at about the same rate as last year (2012) – the lowest minimum Arctic sea ice extent on record – but faster than other lows in 2007 and 2011.

Of course, because the sea ice extent minimum wasn’t as quite deep this year, it is no surprise that the absolute value of the sea ice extent is a little higher this month than it was in those record breaking years.