Earlier this month, NOAA released the findings of its 15th Arctic Report Card.
The report card, generated from the input of 133 scientists from 15 countries, reports that increasingly warm temperatures continue to affect the Arctic. For example, the Eurasian Arctic saw its lowest June snow extent in the last 54 years, a result of high temperatures felt this past spring across Siberia. Moreover, the second-warmest average annual land-surface air temperature in the Arctic since 1900 was observed between October 2019 and September 2020. The report also shows that the Arctic ice has become thinner and more fragile in the last 10 years. This year’s Arctic minimum sea ice extent was reached in September, the second-lowest in satellite record, according to NOAA.
“The transformation of the Arctic to a warmer, less frozen and biologically changed region is well underway,” said Rick Thoman, Alaska Climate Specialist with the International Arctic Research Center, and one of the report card’s editors.
For more, visit https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2020.
