Wow!
We are all but a lock for #1 October across North America.
Meanwhile, the situation is yielding another side effect which I did not realize would occur. All the cold being stuck / shunted into North America + the open water along the Russian side / lack of snow in western Siberia has resulted in MASSIVE + 500MB anoms overhead.
But the side effect of this is also no refreeze along the Russian shoreline. No accumulating snows, much less cold meltwater, no cold / albedo way up, = no shore ice. The shore ice has traditionally anchored the Laptev refreeze alongside the expansion of the CAB. With this year's formation of shore ice delayed so substantially across both Alaska and much of Siberia, that is yet another very bad sign for volume over winter 2018.
North American snowcover has now passed total Arctic sea ice area, btw (probably a record for the time of year -- both snowcover at its high, and sea ice at its lows). This goes to 10/11 but when it updates to include 10/12 (attached) it will be even higher. The falls from 10/11 to 10/12 were widespread and deep.
I think this supports the notion that as we continue losing Arctic sea ice volume, the growing deficit is seemingly depositing partially onto the continents in the form of accumulated SWE (and as the deficit worsens, the rate at which this is happening is increasing).