Arctic report card shows hottest year on record, with warming accelerating

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. (NEWS 1130) – A report from dozens of scientists in 11 countries finds that warming has gone into overdrive at the top of the world. While the trend has been observed for years, 2016’s Arctic Report Card shows it is now happening twice as fast as anywhere else on the globe with new records being set this year for high temperatures, low sea ice, and shrinking ice sheets and glaciers in the far north.

Lead author Jeremy Mathis, the Arctic research chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says it shows long-term warming trends are deepening and becoming more obvious.

“We’ve seen a year in 2016 in the Arctic like we have never seen before. The report cars this year clearly shows a stronger and more pronounced signal of persistent warming than in any previous year in our observational record,” explains Mathis. “All signs point to continuing on this trajectory.”

Highlights from the 2016 Arctic Report Card

• The average surface air temperature for the year ending September 2016 is by far the highest since 1900, and new monthly record highs were recorded for January, February, October and November 2016
• Sea surface temperature for the Arctic Ocean in August was 9 degrees above average
• After only modest changes from 2013-2015, minimum sea ice extent at the end of summer 2016 tied with 2007 for the second lowest in the satellite record, which started in 1979
• Spring snow cover extent in the North American Arctic was the lowest in the satellite record, which started in 1967
• In 37 years of Greenland ice sheet observations, only one year had earlier onset of spring melting than 2016

 

He points to a “disturbing creep” of the warming trend into seasons beyond summer when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice.

“Arctic air temperature continues to increase at double the rate of the average global temperature,” adds researcher Donald Perovich. “Since the beginning of the 20th century, Arctic-wide annual average air temperature overland has increased by 3.5 degrees Celsius.”

Scientists have long said climate change would hit the Arctic the fastest and that there are cascading effects from the warming potentially leading to more weather extremes in southern Canada and the US.