As noted above, IJIS extent has been the lowest on record 185 of this year's 349 days, including the last 57 consecutive days. That's about 53% of the total. It was also 2nd lowest on an additional 56 days, and 3rd lowest on another 67. That means 2016 has spent a total of 308 days in one of the three lowest positions, for 88% of the total.
Despite the December refreeze, 2016 has by a wide margin seen the least Northern sea ice extent on record, as exhibited by this graph:
Interesting stat: even were extent to grow by
750k every day between now and the end of the year, 2016 would still end up with the lowest annual average extent.
November saw the lowest average for that month on record, and December is a solid lock. So even if IJIS's daily numbers catch up to previous years for a shorter or longer time span, the damage has already been done. For remember: not all ice is created equal.
Also: the sun starts s-l-o-w-l-y moving back north in just one week.