When all Arctic sea ice is summed up, 2019 experienced the second-lowest mean sea-ice extent of all previous august months since 1979, in between august 2012 (lowest) and 2007 (now third lowest).

Heavy ice conditions in Svalbard
Locally around Svalbard, the ice conditions were more unusal for this time of the year: more sea-ice is observed to the North-East and East of the archipelago, and caused troubles for ship traffic (in Norwegian).

North-East and East of the Svalbard archipelago.
Readers of cryo.met.no can also access daily SAR imagery where sea-ice around Svalbard is apparent:
