Interactive sea ice time series graphic.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

Note the switch at UL that allows display of Antarctic curves. It is interesting to note that although there has been an extreme collapse of summer sea ice extents in the Arctic since the satellite record began, the Antarctic has exhibited a much smaller but still unmistakable increase over the same period; although it seems pretty clear that the latter effect will not cancel out, or begin to make up for, the former. Furthermore, the Northern Hemisphere contains the bulk of the planet’s land mass and population, as well as most of the annual variation in ice extent. We appear to be living in an increasingly bipolar planet.

With this wonderful tool now available, it will no longer be necessary for me to provide the monthly updates, although I may still comment further on this topic from time to time.