There’s only a month until the melt season theoretically melts and the refreezing time begins, but until then, the polar ice cap has begun shrinking again, and shows no signs of even slowing down the shrinking.

“With about a month left in the sea ice melt season, the amount of further ice loss will depend mostly on weather patterns,” the NSIDC said.

Images from satellites have shown that ice covers about 2.15 million square miles, 815,000 square miles below the average for this time of the year.

“Sea ice is low across almost all of the Arctic, with the exception of some areas of the East Greenland Sea,” the NSIDC reported. “It is exceptionally low in the Laptev and Kara Sea areas.”

This new data offers only a glimpse of the true damage done to that environment, and how vulnerable it is in the face of weather’s caprices.

“The weather has now changed again, bringing another high-pressure pattern. Winds associated with this pressure pattern generally bring warm temperatures, and tend to push the ice together and reduce overall extent.”