With the annual ice-retreat period all but over, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Tuesday that the Arctic ice extent for 2015 ranked as the fourth-lowest in records dating to 1979.
As of Sept. 11, it stood at 1.7 million square miles. That's down from 2014's 1.94 million square miles, but above the 2012 record of 1.31 million.
The 30-year average for the 1981-2000 period was 2.4 million, but in the last 10 years the average has been 1.8 million.
The ice center said it is still possible that the 2015 number will go lower, with a wind shift or an Arctic warm spell.
But up that way the sun is saying good-night, and temperatures are about to slip into autumn and winter mode.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the world, the ice center, which is affiliated with the University of Colorado, reported that Antarctic ice was about average.
In recent years, Antarctic ice has reached record levels during the Southern Hemisphere cold seasons.