Now in the deep of fall, Alaska’s profound change continues. Record warm ocean temperatures mean that sea ice in the state’s northern waters is at historic lows for early November. The ice refuses to regrow.

“For old-timers like me, till the day I die, my jaw will drop at the sight of this stuff,” Thoman said.

“It has been a remarkable freeze-season (or lack of) so far,” noted Zack Labe, a climate scientist and PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine. “Overall, the last month has featured large areas of open water north of Alaska and Siberia.”

The stagnant…