IJIS:
11,519,803 km2(May 26, 2017)down 25,091 km2 and 6th lowest measured for the date.
NSIDC has it at 7th place, "behind" 2016, 2014, 2011, 2010, 2006, 2004. Unless some dramatic melt starts happening it will "fall behind" even farther. After getting such a huge head start, what can explain the slow drop?
Since early April, extent has been doubly increased by export (of both ice and cold air) to the atlantic side and by the consequent open water in Laptev, ESS and Kara freezing over.
Then it's been doubled again by increased fragmentation and dispersion in the CAB leading to yet more late-season FYI coverage.
To sum up, all that extra extent is caused by increased fragmentation + mobility, and either :
- (in the case of everything to the South of Svalbard) in a place where it cannot possibly survive the summer, no matter how thick it is, or:
- not just FYI, but rather pretty much first _month_ ice, which formed late in the freezing season when temps were mostly way above the historical average for the time of year, which is likely to vanish in a puff of fog with no warning whatsoever.
... So all in all, as I've alluded to before, the "slow drop" is an artifact of the Arctic Ocean metaphorically slitting it's wrists, and the extent is just the size of the pool of blood on the floor.