The Bering melt is pretty normal for the time of year though, if anything compared to most years in the past 10 years, ice seems more extensive but apart from localised SSTS, I think the Bering has very little affect on the ice in the Bering straight/Chukchi sea.
The Kara sea is a little different and looking at the forecast in the medium term, we could see more "dramatic" images with strong southerlies developing from a ridge, temperatures will be above average also, will be interesting too see how that develops if it occurs.
/agree in context of the last decade, Bering melt really isn't remarkable.
I'll peek at what the Kara has been doing over the last week or so and review temperatures, but again, in context of the last decade, that's not jumping out at me as demonstrating a significant departure from trend either,
at this point.
My initial check of projected temps a couple of days ago showed positive anomalies over the Pacific side of the pack, and somewhat cooler on the Atlantic.
Overall melt numbers in aggregate still seem somewhat elevated, but as mentioned previously, this could be tied primarily to drops in peripheral seas that won't have a significant impact on end of season numbers.
I did take a look at northern hemisphere snow cover. It doesn't seem that unusual, nor does the forecast suggest radical short term changes, so no sudden shifts in albedo seem to be in the offing. I do note that over the core pack, snow cover appears to be running at 20-30cm or more. At this juncture, that's good for preservation unless other things happen which decrease albedo and thereby increase heat uptake from insolation. One more thing to watch.
So conclusion? So far nothing to suggest what's happening with melt behavior at this time of year is much distinct from what we've been seeing since about 2015.
