"Blue sea event" or not? - early reflections

More reflections on the 2017 Arctic melt season

We get very used to dealing with things on the macro level - what global temperatures are, what the total ice cover is, but that is often like looking at Nasa Worldview.

If we only look at the main image things perhaps don't look so bad at first glance.

Zoom in and this is what you seen (this is at 83 deg N)

What that translates into is this

How do we measure the sea ice extent or even the thickness of this? How much blue sea is there in areas like this that cover hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers.

If I have to call it as Guy McPherson just has I would say that even if we have 'dodged the bullet' for another year it is only relative and we have seen further major deterioration in the ice which is not reflected in any statistics.

Just my own personal off-the-cuff reflections....

From today

As far as the Arctic melt season is concerned all I'd say is it ain't over until the fat lady sings.

It is above zero as shown by two of these pics. 

There is lots of cloud and some rain, but the ice is breaking up at 78 deg. N.