"...the Arctic turns into a single gyre"?
There hasn't even been a gyre lately. Instead the ice in the Arctic Basin has been blown from the Russian side and compressed against the Canadian side, with some leaking out towards the Atlantic...
The good news is that the compression has helped to heal the Beaufort Sea back to around a 2 metre thickness.
And if the pattern ends soon then there is still well over a month left of weather cold enough to somewhat heal the tears on the Russian side.
But what if the tear-and-compression continues well into April or May? Will large stretches of water remain open on the Russian side, efficiently absorbing the peak insolation around the Summer solstice?
A broader question is why so much compression? Is there enough thin and weak ice this year in the Arctic Basin that any wind pressure from the Russian side will always result in movement and compression? And is this movement replacing the Beaufort gyre of seasons past, with the ice now compressing rather than transferring the force for rotation?
If so, does this mean that maximum Arctic sea ice volume for the year has descended this season to a transition value, or even a tipping point, where the ice will continue to tear-and-compress from the Russian side heading into the Summer melt season, with the Russian side therefore opening up anomalously early?
Or, instead, will the movement damp down within a few weeks and those consequences won't come to pass this year?
Either way, the plot twists and turns of the melt season are going to provide us with riveting viewing.