{"id":3885,"date":"2026-05-19T21:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/facts-about-the-arctic-in-may-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:00:17","slug":"facts-about-the-arctic-in-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/facts-about-the-arctic-in-may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts About the Arctic in May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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JAXA have updated their visualisations of\u00a0Arctic sea ice extent<\/a>\u00a0data. The \u201ctraditional\u201d 2 day average graph is now labelled \u201cpreliminary\u201d, and currently shows 2026 in a tie with 2020 for third lowest for the date:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

5 day averaged \u201cconfirmed\u201d data is also available, including regional graphs. By way of example here\u2019s JAXA\u2019s latest extent graph for the Bering Sea, dated May 15th:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Alfred Wegener Institute\u2019s sea ice concentration data<\/a> reveals open water in the Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian and Laptev Seas:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In the eastern Beaufort Sea albedo is further reduced by the waters of the Mackenzie River encroaching upon the fast ice off the river delta:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\u201cFalse colour\u201d image of the Mackenzie Delta on\u00a0May 17th<\/a>\u00a0from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The monthly summary of atmospheric conditions over the Arctic during April 2026 reveal part of the reason for the open water. A persistent area of high pressure over the Beaufort Sea:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

The NSIDC monthly average extent graph for April shows 2026 second lowest behind 2019:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Watch this space!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAXA have updated their visualisations of\u00a0Arctic sea ice extent\u00a0data. The \u201ctraditional\u201d 2 day average graph is now labelled \u201cpreliminary\u201d, and currently shows 2026 in a tie with 2020 for third lowest for the date: 5 day averaged \u201cconfirmed\u201d data is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}