Here's an animated gif of its development.
Having gone back through the archives this is the biggest polnya this early in the season. DMI shows that it's already warming up, and warm temperatures over much of Siberia should guarantee warming river discharge into the region.
Detail from DMI sea surface temperature.
Temperatures peaking around 4degC may not seem much, it is still very cold, but even at the end of 2007 temperatures didn't get much above 5degC, JAXA (the anomaly for a region previously ice covered is about 0degC). As I blogged early this month, what caused the opening of this polnya was offshore winds, but now the ice albedo feedback is getting started with the warming of waters within it.
Whilst the June CT Area anomaly drop hasn't started yet, the season is definitely underway.
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