Dec. 16 (UPI) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unveiled Tuesday its annual Arctic Report Card painting a grim picture for the polar region as experts say winter’s “whole concept” was reportedly being “redefined” amid its environmental breakdown.
NOAA reported that from October 2024 to September this year the Arctic experienced its hottest year in 125 years. It marked the tenth straight year of record warmth.
“Across these changing landscapes, sustained observations and strong research partnerships, including those led by communities and Indigenous organizations, remain essential for understanding and adaptation,” NOAA officials warned in its report.
The 2025 #ArcticReportCard on land: Ongoing glacier loss contributes to steadily rising global sea levels, threatening Arctic communities’ water supplies, driving floods & increasing landslide & tsunami hazards endangering people, infrastructure & coasts. https://t.co/UNfmyUvYiK pic.twitter.com/xxGUqY6XKa— NOAA Research (@NOAAResearch) December 16, 2025
Ongoing global fossil fuel emissions have been causing the Arctic to warm four times faster than the rest of the planet, which has disrupted Earth’s natural climate regulator.
NOAA’s 2025 Arctic Report Card showed sea ice reached its lowest maximum in 47 years of satellite data.
It continued a decades-long decline that wiped out more than 95% of the region’s oldest and thickest ice as the Arctic warms and more rain pours.
Across northern Alaska’s Brooks Range, warming temperatures have thawed ancient soils and released iron into rivers and streams turning water red-orange as a vivid sign of rapid Arctic climate change.
Greenland alone has shed 129 billion tons this year threatening coastal cities for generations.
Although melting sea ice doesn’t raise sea levels, the loss of land ice does. And as sea ice disappears, dark ocean water absorbs more heat and accelerates global warming.
“Coastal cities aren’t 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,” stated Zack Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central.
The Trump administration has scaled back climate research by slashing budgets, dismissing scientists and halting the National Climate Assessment to better reflect the president’s view of climate change as a so-called “hoax.”
Meanwhile, an Arctic expert said the “whole concept of winter is being redefined in the Arctic” and that 2025 “really underscored what is to come.”
“This year was the warmest on record and had the most precipitation on record — to see both of those things happen in one year is remarkable,” said Matthew Langdon Druckenmiller, the Arctic report’s editor and Arctic scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.