The Beaufort Sea Ice is breaking up months ahead of schedule due to early warming.

This image of early ice breakup of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument infrared channel, at around 1148 UTC on April 13, 2016. Every year, the cap of frozen seawater floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring seas melts during the spring and summer and grows back in the fall and winter months, reaching its maximum yearly extent between February and April. On March 24, Arctic sea ice extent peaked at 5.607 million square miles (14.52 million square kilometers), a new record low winter maximum extent in the satellite record that started in 1979.

Although melting begins on the sea ice in late May, the sea ice breakup (Beaufort gyre) in the Beaufort Sea should be happening in August and September and than only near the coasts. But the ice began to crack April 1, 2016. See jaw dropping animation from the past 72 days until May 11, 2016 below.

Meanwhile, the permafrost in Fort Yukon Alaska is baking​ at a pleasant 75 degrees. Twenty-four degrees above normal.

From Britannica:

The Beaufort Sea is under ice almost the year round; only in August and September does the ice break up, and then only near the coasts. Four water masses may be distinguished. The surface water mass is nearly 330 ft thick and ranges in temperature from 29.5° F (-1.4° C) in late summer to 28.8° F (-1.8° C) in winter. The subsurface water mass, formed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea flowing through the Bering Strait, is much warmer than the surface water and almost reaches the North Pole. The deep Atlantic water is the warmest of all, its temperature ranging from 32° to 34° F (0° to 1° C). The bottom water has temperatures ranging from 30.6° to 31.3° F (-0.4° to -0.8° C).

April 1, 2016

From Sam Carana​:

Over the past 365 days, temperatures over the Arctic have been much higher than the rest of the world. Arctic sea ice is in a bad shape, ocean heat is very high... and rising, and high temperatures are forecast to hit the Arctic over the next week. Chances are that the sea ice will be largely gone by September 2016.

Arctic Sea Ice gone by September 2016? arctic-news.blogspot.com/...