Update: An all-time record was set the next day

I usually graph Sea Ice Extent. Every once in a while I graph Sea Ice Area.

“A simplified way to think of extent versus area is to imagine a slice of swiss cheese. Extent would be a measure of the edges of the slice of cheese and all of the space inside it. Area would be the measure of where there is cheese only, not including the holes. That is why if you compare extent and area in the same time period, extent is always bigger.”

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/faq/#area_extent

Antarctic Sea Ice Area is within 29,600 sq km of an all time record (which occurred in 2007 at 16.23238 million sq km).

Day 255 is 5th behind 2 days in 2007 and 2 days in 2012.

Chris Beal reminded me.