Just when you think their onto something with the 2012 low ice pack, you get this...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... ts.html?fb

There already has been a response to the article (and a similar one in the Mail) highlighting issues with it:
Guardian: Arctic sea ice delusions strike...

The Telegraph article suggests that the ice sheet grew over the summer. I appreciate that this is down to poor phrasing, but we should be clear that it has not - it always declines over the summer to the minimum in latw September.

The area covered in August is still significantly lower than the average minimum over the 30 years, and is lower than the August level for 2009 (and every year before 2007). Looking at the data, last year was much lower than trend, and so reversion to the mean implies we would expect a greater level of cover soon enough, but that would not mean anything had suddenly changed.

Also, they are wrong to state that there was a prediction that the ice would be gone by this year. That prediction (widely seen as pessimistic) was for no sea ice by 2016 +- 3 years. That means it has until 2019 to be proven wrong.

Meanwhile, the National Snow and Ice Data Center is reporting that a hole has opened up in the ice about 3 degrees south of the pole.

No bet this year.

I love the neat graphic in that article, thanks Danivon.