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Abstract. Basic statistical metrics such as autocorrelations and across-region lagcorrelations of sea ice variations provide benchmarks for the assessments offorecast skill achieved by other methods such as more sophisticatedstatistical formulations, numerical models, and heuristic approaches. In thisstudy we use observational data to evaluate the contribution of the trend tothe skill of persistence-based statistical forecasts of monthly and seasonalice extent on the pan-Arctic and regional scales. We focus on the BeaufortSea for which the Barnett Severity Index provides a metric of historicalvariations in ice conditions over the summer shipping season. The varianceabout the trend line differs little among various methods of detrending(piecewise linear, quadratic, cubic, exponential). Application of thepiecewise linear trend calculation indicates an acceleration of the winterand summer trends during the 1990s. Persistence-based statistical forecastsof the Barnett Severity Index as well as September pan-Arctic ice extent showsignificant statistical skill out to several seasons when the data includethe trend. However, this apparent skill largely vanishes when the data aredetrended. In only a few regions does September ice extent correlatesignificantly with antecedent ice anomalies in the same region more than 2months earlier. The springtime “predictability barrier” in regionalforecasts based on persistence of ice extent anomalies is not reduced by theinclusion of several decades of pre-satellite data. No region showssignificant correlation with the detrended September pan-Arctic ice extent atlead times greater than a month or two; the concurrent correlations arestrongest with the East Siberian Sea. The Beaufort Sea's ice extent as farback as July explains about 20 % of the variance of the Barnett SeverityIndex, which is primarily a September metric. The Chukchi Sea is the onlyother region showing a significant association with the Barnett SeverityIndex, although only at a lead time of a month or two.