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Arctic sea ice extent tracked at near-record low levels through much of June, hitting daily record low levels from June 20 to 26. Antarctic sea ice averaged third lowest for the month of June. There have been unrecoverable gaps in delivered sea ice data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMI/S). Since the the SSMIS data feed will end July 31, the team will be switching to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2) passive microwave sensor as the primary data source.

May sea ice extent in the Arctic averaged 12.56 million square kilometers (4.85 million square miles), tying with 2004 for seventh lowest on the 47-year satellite record. Antarctic sea ice extent for May was fifth lowest in the satellite record, but below average growth through the month resulted in the daily ice extent moving away from the 1981 to 2010 average.

Arctic sea ice extent through most of April changed very little. Only at the end of the month did extent begin to decline. Because the month started with unusually low extent, however, the average extent for April ended up tied for ninth lowest in the satellite record. The situation in the Antarctic remained fickle. Extent at the end of the month was tracking near the levels recorded for 2024, but well above the record low in 2023.

On March 1, Antarctic sea ice likely reached its minimum extent of 1.98 million square kilometers (764,000 square miles), tying for second lowest extent with 2022 and 2024 in the 47-year satellite record. This is the fourth consecutive year that Antarctic sea ice has reached a minimum below 2.0 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles).