NSIDC monthly update. An unusual late freezing season. After seeming
to peak in early March, cold, northerly winds in the Barents and the
Bering seas allowed the ice front to extend, as has been explained
here.

As has been also explained here, this ice is thin and the extent at
the end of the melt season has little to do with the summer low.

However, there is a little more 2nd and 3rd year ice this year, as the
record low happened in 2007. NSIDC explains that this could have a
delaying effect on the melting later in the year, but it will depend a
great deal on synoptics

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/index.html