Despite cooler temperatures and ice-favoring conditions, long-term decline continues. This is a press release from NSIDC, which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Arctic sea ice extent during the 2008 melt season dropped to the second-lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979, reaching the lowest point in its annual cycle of melt and
growth on September 14, 2008. Average sea ice extent over the month of September, a standard measure in the scientific study of Arctic sea ice, was 4.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles).