WASHINGTON: The Arctic recorded its hottest year on record between October 2024 and September 2025, underscoring the accelerating impacts of climate change, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Arctic Report Card.
Average temperatures were 1.60 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 norm, with the region experiencing its warmest autumn, second-warmest winter and third-warmest summer since records began in 1900.
Scientists warn the pace of warming is unprecedented in recent history, driven largely by fossil fuel emissions and intensified by “Arctic Amplification” feedback loops that trap more heat as sea ice melts and darker ocean waters absorb solar energy.
Spring 2025 marked the smallest Arctic sea ice maximum in the 47-year satellite record, posing immediate threats to polar bears, seals and walrus that rely on ice for survival.
Models suggest the Arctic could face nearly ice-free summers by 2040 or earlier.
Melting sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet are also freshening the North Atlantic, potentially weakening major ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream, with consequences for European weather.
The region is becoming warmer and wetter, driving tundra “greening”, permafrost thaw and polluted “rusting rivers”, while increasing risks of global sea-level rise, ecosystem disruption and more extreme weather at lower latitudes. – AFP
