La sequenza record di questo agosto commentata da The Cryosphere Today (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/):

Thursday, August 9, 2007 - New historic sea ice minimum

Today the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the lowest ice area in observed history. The new record (3.98 million sq. km) came a full month before the historic summer minimum typically occurs. There is still a month or more of melt likely this year. It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record (4.01 million sq. km) will not just be broken, but annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this summer.
In previous record sea ice minima years, ice area anomalies were confined to certain sectors (N. Atlantic, Beaufort/Bering Sea, etc.). The character of 2007's sea ice melt is unique in that it is dramatic and covers the entire Arctic sector. Atlantic, Pacific and even the central Arctic sectors are showing large negative sea ice area anomalies.
While we use sea ice concentration data supplied by NASA via the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), there are some differences between the way we and NSIDC process our sea ice indices. NSIDC uses 10-day running means; we use 3-day running means. NSIDC will often report sea ice extent indices and records, we are reporting a new sea ice minima sea ice area. The ice area metric includes year-to-year variations within the central pack ice and not just variations in the southern sea ice edge. According to the NSIDC's metrics, this year has not yet crossed into record territory, although it is very close. Regardless of these differences, the rapid rate of sea ice melt this summer, along with the current negative sea ice anomalies, almost guarantees a record Northern Hemisphere summer sea ice minimum this summer, by any metric.
UPDATE: Thursday, August 16, 2007 - New historic sea ice minimum
One week after dipping below 4 million square kilometers Northern Hemisphere sea ice area and setting the new historic record NH sea ice minimum, there is currently 3.58 million sq. kilometers sea ice area. This new minimum is almost 11% lower than the previous historic minimum.
UPDATE: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - New historic sea ice minimum
There is currently 3.22 million sq. kilometers sea ice area in the Northern Hemisphere. For the true cryosphere fan, we have created a high resolution animation of this year's sea ice retreat (01/01/2007 - 08/17/2007). WARNING - This quicktime animation is very large at 188Mb, but it illustrates nicely the temporal evolution of this year's sea ice. Animation: 2007 sea ice minimum animation