http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/arctic-ice-melting-record/

“The numbers are coming in and we are looking at them with a sense of amazement,” the center’s director Mark Serrez said. “If the melt were to just suddenly stop today, we would be at the third lowest [ice level] in the satellite record. We’ve still got another two weeks of melt to go, so I think we’re very likely to set a new record.”

The last all-time low ice record was way back in 2007… Records are starting to come closer and closer together. The summer melt usually hits its lowest point in mid-September. The map below shows the ice in mid-August, and the median ice cover for mid-August.