The Arctic Just Experienced Its Warmest Year on Record

""After 20 years of continuous reporting, the Report Card stands as a chronicle of change and a caution for what the future will bring," report editors Matthew Langdon Druckenmiller, Rick Thoman, and Twila A. Moon wrote in the executive summary. "Transformations over the next 20 years will reshape Arctic environments and ecosystems, impact the well-being of Arctic residents, and influence the trajectory of the global climate system itself, which we all depend on.""

"Arctic warming is not confined to the spring and summer months, but marks a full-year transformation, with fall 2024 being the warmest Arctic fall on record and winter 2025 the second-warmest winter. While snow levels do remain high in the winter months, they consistently drop by June, with snow cover during that month now about half of 1960s levels. Precipitation in the winter months is also not limited to snow."

"In this aerial view, melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16, 2024, near Ilulissat, Greenland. Sean Gallup / Getty Images The Arctic just experienced its warmest air temperatures on record between October 2024 and September 2025 as the climate crisis dramatically alters the region, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found in its 20th Arctic Report Card. The annual report, released Tuesday, also notes the Arctic's lowest maximum sea-ice extent and its wettest year on record."

The Arctic experienced its warmest air temperatures between October 2024 and September 2025, and the past decade is the warmest on record. The region is heating two to four times faster than the global average, producing the warmest fall in 2024 and the second-warmest winter in 2025. Snow cover that remains high through winter now declines rapidly by June, with June snow cover about half of 1960s levels, and winter precipitation increasingly includes rain. March 2025 saw the lowest maximum sea-ice extent in nearly 50 years of satellite data, and the oldest, thickest ice has declined by over 95% since the 1980s, now confined north of Greenland and the Canadian archipelago. These changes are reshaping Arctic environments, affecting communities, and altering the global climate trajectory.

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