And I don't think enough formed to withstand what looks to be another warm summer above the Arctic Circle.
Although the circumpolar vortex recovered after all the cold air escaped and went to Texas, going back to doing its circling the pole thing and formed some good ice, the more recent cold waves coming down to Europe and now the U.S. pretty much put a cap on any more ice growth.
This can be seen in the volume measurement from the Danish Meteorological Institute which stalled a couple days ago and has now turned down:
If you click through that DMI link you will see that there is some thick multi-year ice that got even thicker this year but the area between Greenland and Svalbard did not fill in and that is a problem for the summer.
The general movement of the ice is out through the Fram Strait which is why it is nice to have a fat plug of 2 - 3 meter ice in that spot but this season it never got the chance to form.
February 5, 2021
Higher Temperatures Expected Through 2022
Despite the cold descending on Asia, Europe and North America—see Ventusky's map for a particularly good representation of The Beast From the East bearing down on Scandinavia—we are still in a warmer than average temperature regime and probably will be for at least a couple more years....
And:
A Couple Reasons To Look For A Hot Summer, Maybe Even Drought In Central Europe This Year
