{"id":190146,"date":"2025-12-18T15:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190146\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T15:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:03:20","slug":"arctic-endured-year-of-record-heat-as-climate-scientists-warn-of-winter-being-redefined-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190146\/","title":{"rendered":"Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of \u2018winter being redefined\u2019 | Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arctic<\/a> endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world\u2019s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis, scientists have reported.<\/p>\n

From October 2024 to September 2025, temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the hottest in 125 years of modern record keeping, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said, with the last 10 years being the 10 warmest on record in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly<\/a> as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world\u2019s refrigerator \u2013 a region that acts as a key climate regulator for the rest of the planet.<\/p>\n

The maximum extent of sea ice in 2025 was the lowest in the 47-year satellite record, Noaa reported on in its annual Arctic report card<\/a>. This is the latest landmark in a longer trend, with the region\u2019s oldest, thickest ice declining<\/a> by more than 95% since the 1980s as the Arctic becomes hotter and rainier.<\/p>\n

This year was a record for precipitation in the Arctic. Much of this is not settling as snow \u2013 the June snow cover extent over the Arctic today is half of what it was six decades ago.<\/p>\n

A line chart showing that the current extent of ice in the Arctic sea is lowest on record<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year was the warmest on record and had the most precipitation on record \u2013 to see both of those things happen in one year is remarkable,\u201d said Matthew Langdon Druckenmiller, an Arctic scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center<\/a> at the University of Colorado and an editor of the Arctic report card. \u201cThis year has really underscored what is to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists have been struck by how exceptional warmth in other seasons, particularly summer, is now becoming evident in winter too, affecting the annual growth of sea ice across the Arctic in its coldest months. In the past month or so, sea ice extent has been the lowest on record, potentially heralding another reduced maximum for sea ice next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a steady decline in sea ice and unfortunately we are seeing rain now even in winter,\u201d said Druckenmiller. \u201cWe are seeing changes in the heart of winter, when we expect the Arctic to be cold. The whole concept of winter is being redefined in the Arctic.\u201d<\/p>\n

These changes are acutely felt by people and wildlife in the Arctic \u2013 rain falling on to snow can freeze into a barrier that makes it harder for animals to forage for food, while also making for more slippery, hazardous conditions for people traveling by road. The retreat of glaciers can also cause potentially dangerous flooding, as seen in Juneau, Alaska, this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The loss of sea ice is opening up vast areas of dark ocean, which is absorbing, rather than reflecting, more of the heat that is raising global temperatures. While the melting sea ice isn\u2019t itself causing the seas to rise, the loss of land-based glaciers is<\/a>, with Noaa reporting that the huge Greenland ice sheet lost 129bn tons of ice in 2025. This will add to sea level rise that will menace coastal cities for generations to come<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing cascading impacts from a warming Arctic,\u201d said Zack Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central. \u201cCoastal cities aren\u2019t ready for the rising sea levels, we have completely changed the fisheries in the Arctic which leads to rising food bills for sea food. We can point to the Arctic as a far away place but the changes there affect the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world\u2019s northern latitudes continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-190146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}