When I saw that the NSIDC reports for Arctic SIE decline for August 11th and 12th were both over a century, I wondered if melting momentum had picked up for this month. Then, the 22 1000 km^2 gain today, made me change my mind. But the erratic results on a day to day basis reinforces for me why the NSIDC's most visible reports are based on 5 day averages. Further, looking at the daily data shows that an August day with a gain in Arctic SIE is not that unusual. Here are the dates with gains in SIE for selected years that ended up with low annual minimums
August 1 - 14
2007 - None
2012 - 8/4, 8/10
2016 - 8/4, 8/13
2017 - 8/5, 8/14
August 15 - 31
2007 - 8/26, 8/27
2012 - 8/30
2016 - 8/17, 8/22, 8/28
2017 - ?