Late winter 2019 major circulation change , from minima sea ice architecture

~Winter 2018-19 main atmospheric circulation main feature was driven by sea ice morphology and snow on ground or lack thereof

     A common basic meteorological mis-concept is to ignore sea ice having anything to do with weather.  To the contrary it has everything to do with world wide weather. 

     2012 sea ice extent minima was all time lowest,  so the weather following mid September 2012 was marked  by split Cold Temperature North Poles during winter 2013,  while 2018 minima extent was characterized by a great depletion or wide open water  North of Beaufort sea,  100% driven by summer time circulation, given a remainder sea ice core close to the North Pole :

And so the circulation was shaped ,  2012 split the Polar Vortex into 2 main vortices,  while
2019 sea ice strong near North Pole remainder made the vortex more unified but elongated.  Here at 600 mb,  we see the Vortex true configuration difference,  coming from the conclusion at sea ice minima.  WD March 31 2019

North Ellesmere/Greenland biggest in memory open water/very thin sea ice at peak of cold season

~Stunning,  given a quite cold winter in this particular region

    NASA EOSDIS March 19 2019,  huge thin ice open water area usually circular because of full moon tidal current towards the South.  Note the band of ice NW breaking away towards Kennedy Channel :

  March 12 2019,  this area is long standing,  despite temperatures in the -40's C.......   The only possible explanation I can come up with,  is the ratio of thin and old multi-year sea ice is greater than can be surmised by remote sensing means.  This follows last summer 's discovery of vast areas of never seen before open water just to the North of this anomaly.  Sea ice current was predominant towards same area all winter pushing summer's ice towards the Canadian Arctic Archipelago coast,  by persistent presence of Anticyclones over the Arctic Ocean Gyre area.   WD March 20 ,  2019