The Arctic has experienced a year of record heat and shrinking sea ice as the world's northern latitudes continue to rapidly become wetter and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis, scientists report.
According to NOAA, from October 2024 to September 2025, temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the warmest in 125 years on record, and the last 10 years were the 10 warmest on record in the Arctic.
The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average due to the burning of fossil fuels, and that extra heat is straining the global refrigerator, a region that acts as a key climate regulator for the rest of the planet.
Maximum sea ice extent in 2025 was the lowest in 47 years of satellite observations, NOAA said in its annual Arctic report. report card. It's the latest milestone in a long-term trend: The region's oldest and thickest ice has shrunk by more than 95 percent since the 1980s as the Arctic gets hotter and rainier.
This year was a record for the amount of precipitation in the Arctic. Much of this does not fall as snow—the extent of June snow cover over the Arctic today is half what it was six decades ago.
“This year was the warmest on record and had the highest rainfall on record. It's amazing to see both of these things happen in one year,” said Matthew Langdon Druckenmiller, an Arctic scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado and editor of the Arctic Report Card. “This year has really highlighted what’s to come.”
Scientists have been struck by how exceptional warmth in other seasons, especially summer, is now evident in winter, influencing the annual growth of sea ice in the Arctic during the coldest months. Over the past month or so, sea ice extent has been the lowest on record, potentially foreshadowing another decline in sea ice maximum next year.
“There is a steady decline in sea ice, and unfortunately we are seeing rain even in the winter,” Druckenmiller said. “We're seeing changes in the heart of winter, when we expect the Arctic to be cold. The whole concept of winter in the Arctic is being reconsidered.”
These changes are being felt acutely by people and wildlife in the Arctic: Rain falling on snow can become a barrier that makes it harder for animals to get food and also creates slipperier and more dangerous conditions for people traveling on roads. Retreating glaciers can also cause potentially dangerous flooding, as happened this year in Juneau, Alaska.
The loss of sea ice opens up vast areas of dark ocean that absorbs rather than reflects more heat, causing global temperatures to rise. While melting sea ice does not itself cause sea level rise, the disappearance of land-based glaciers does. NOAA reports that Greenland's vast ice sheet lost 129 billion tons of ice in 2025. This will lead to sea level rise that will threaten coastal cities for generations to come.
“We're seeing cascading effects from a warming Arctic,” said Zach Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central. “Coastal cities are not prepared for rising sea levels, we have completely changed fisheries in the Arctic, which is driving up seafood bills. We can point to the Arctic as a distant place, but changes there affect the rest of the world.”
—Oliver MillmanGuardian
ALSO ON YALE E360
Lightning struck the Arctic: what will this mean for the Far North?
