text: Anthony Watts posts that Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent Anomaly for November was a record high for the NSIDC data set. He also mentions that this year saw record highs in Southern Hemisphere ice extent for June, July, and August as well.
  
  Watts also complains that “Oddly, they have a plot for extent, and a data file for area, but no plot for area or data for extent. Seems backwards, doesn’t it? Maybe I’ve missed something and they are in some other FTP folder?” This makes me suspect that he hasn’t looked at the actual data files, because those files with “area” in the name contain data for both area and extent.
  
  
  
  Monthly average southern hemisphere sea ice extent for November was indeed the highest on record (for the NSIDC satellite data):
  
  For the northern hemisphere, this November was only 2nd-lowest on record:
  
  Which TREND do you suppose is greater?
  
  Monthly average southern hemisphere sea ice extent for June was indeed the highest on record (for the NSIDC satellite data):
  
  For the northern hemisphere, this June was also a record, the lowest in this data set:
  
  Which TREND do you suppose is greater?
  
  Monthly average southern hemisphere sea ice extent for July was indeed the highest on record (for the NSIDC satellite data):
  
  For the northern hemisphere, this July was only 2nd-lowest on record:
  
  Which TREND do you suppose is greater?
  
  Monthly average southern hemisphere sea ice extent for August was indeed the highest on record (for the NSIDC satellite data):
  
  For the northern hemisphere, this August was only 2nd-lowest on record:
  
  Which TREND do you suppose is greater?
  
  One more thing — both the rapid decrease of arctic sea ice, and the slight increase of antarctic sea ice, were predicted in advance. By those guys who keep telling us that global warming is real, is man-made, and is dangerous.
  
  P.S. The Rabett has useful information on this.
  
  UPDATE:
  
  As requested, here are sea ice extent anomalies for both hemispheres on the same graph, for each of the months mentioned. Anomalies are relative to the entire data set. For November:
  
  For June:
  
  For July:
  
  For August:
  
  UPDATE 2:
  
  Also by request, here’s a comparison between N.Hem September and S.Hem March extent anomaly: