sea ice chart
© dmi.dkThe DMI chart for sea ice extent (30% and more) shows that it is now (7 November 2015 – black line) considerably more than at any time for the date over the past 11 years.
With an ice extent of 8 million square kilometers at the start of November, the Arctic has reached the highest sea ice extent of the last eleven years. A chart (above) from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) clearly shows the highest extent for sea ice cover with 30% or more ice on 7 November 2015.

This chart comes as no surprise for those who have been monitoring the weather and ice developments in the North Atlantic and Greenland.

The net growth of the Greenland ice sheet, which surely is a surprise for many, saw an increase in October of approximately 200 km³ (200 billion cubic meters) since September 1, 2015, i.e. in just 2 months:

greenland ice chart
© dml.dkThe gross mass balance of Greenland’s ice shows a growth of 200 cubic kilometers just since September 1 2015 (blue line in the lower chart). The brown line in the lower chart ends on the right side at 31 August 2015 and shows a gross ice mass growth of approximately 230 km³.
Moreover snow coverage of the northern hemisphere is telling us the same story. In October 2015, at 21.4 million square kilometers, it was the fourth greatest extent since measurements began in 1967, and is 4 million km² above the international WMO 1981-2010 mean:

snow ice chart
© dml.dkNorthern hemisphere snow and ice coverage in October 2015 is close to 4 million square kilometers above the WMO 1981-2010 mean, placing it at no. 4 since record keeping began in 1967. The chart shows an increase in October northern hemisphere snow coverage of close to 9 million square kilometers.