With the 7.611 million sq kms figure posted for July 14, the IJIS/ADS NH Sea Ice Extent 12 month rolling average has now crept just below 9.98 million sq kms.
Putting this into some perspective, and briefly setting aside the 2012 melt out, the lowest such value hitherto recorded was 10.015 million sq kms; this being for the 12 month period ending on 17th November 2011. (That value was matched by the 22nd June this year.)
Unsurprisingly, the events of 2012 put this rather transient record to the sword. Allied to the relatively low values recorded early in 2013, by the 15th of May that year, the current all-time-low rolling 12 month value of 9.915 million sq kms was duly clocked up.
I know that there are conflicting views as to the likely trajectory for the remainder of this current melt season, and I personally think that it will be weather that has the final say. However, here is a naive projection: should the gap between 2015 and 2016 remain roughly as it stands at the time of writing (~ 600k sq kms) then, by about August 23, there will be a new record for the lowest rolling 12 months.
Gulp!