oh muddy, please try to make your points without gaslighting.
who's claiming the Arctic was the hottest ever over recent months?
not i, anyway.
you do know that Earth's surface being land and ocean doesn't all warm or cool together at the same rate. So that this year's sea ice coverage will naturally vary a little from preceding years. Next year won't be the same either.
on the Arctic Sea ice coverage graph you've chosen to highlight, did you notice how all the color lines are below the 1980-2010 median line, the first 30 years of NSIDC satellite coverage, and below the interdecile and interquartile range over the same period. As for the color lines, there isn't much between them.
perhaps it's the color lines that have confused you. Perhaps this simplified version below from NSIDC will make it easier for you to understand. Though i do doubt that because you choose not to understand.
