Arctic Report Card 2025 Warns of Extreme Warming, Record Ice Loss, and Rapid Change

The report stresses that cross-border research, Indigenous-led monitoring, and sustained environmental observations are essential to understand and adapt to the accelerating transformations in the Arctic.

The Arctic Report Card 2025, authored by 112 scientists from 13 countries, details sweeping environmental changes that are transforming the Arctic from a reliably frozen world into a warmer, wetter, and increasingly unpredictable region. Now in its 20th year, the report documents record-setting heat, accelerating sea ice loss, shrinking glaciers, and major ecological disruptions—underscoring that “what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.”

Supported by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and independently reviewed by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the report provides the most authoritative annual snapshot of the Arctic’s atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and ecosystems.

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Key Transformations in the Arctic System

A Warmer, Wetter Arctic Atmosphere

• Warmest Arctic air temperatures recorded since 1900 for October 2024–September 2025.

• The last 10 years are now the warmest decade on record.

• Arctic temperatures have increased at over twice the global average rate since 2006.

• Precipitation reached a record high over the 2024–2025 period.

• Winter, spring, and autumn precipitation were all among the five highest since 1950, contributing to wetter, less stable seasonal conditions.

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A Rapidly Changing Ocean

Record-Low Sea Ice

• In March 2025, Arctic sea ice reached the lowest winter maximum in the 47-year satellite record.

• September 2025 recorded the 10th lowest summer minimum; the 19 lowest minimum extents have occurred consecutively over the last 19 years.

• The most resilient, 4+ year-old ice has declined by 95% since the 1980s, leaving durable multi-year ice confined to waters near Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.

Atlantification Reaches the Central Arctic

Warm, salty Atlantic waters now extend hundreds of miles into the central Arctic Ocean—an unprecedented intrusion.Atlantification is:

• weakening stratification (layering) of Arctic waters

• accelerating sea-ice melt

• increasing heat transfer

• threatening long-term ocean circulation patterns critical to global climate regulation

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On Land: Ice Loss, Greening, and “Rusting Rivers”

Glaciers and Ice Sheets

• Arctic Scandinavia and Svalbard saw their largest annual glacier mass loss on record (2023–2024).

• The Greenland Ice Sheet lost 129 billion tons of ice in 2025, continuing its long-term downward trend (though below the 2003–2024 annual average of 219 billion tons).

• Alaskan glaciers have lost an average 38 meters (125 feet) of ice thickness since the mid-20th century.

These losses drive rising sea levels, destabilize water supplies, and increase risks of floods, landslides, and tsunamis for Arctic communities.

Snow Cover Trends

• Snowpack was above normal during most of the 2024/25 season.

• Yet by June, snow cover dropped below normal—a trend consistent with the past 15 years.

• June snow cover today is half of what it was 60 years ago.

“Rusting Rivers”

Over 200 Arctic Alaska watersheds have turned orange in the past decade as thawing permafrost releases iron and toxic metals, creating acidic, polluted waters.These “rusting rivers” are degrading:

• water quality

• fish habitat

• aquatic biodiversity

A Greener, More Vegetated Arctic

• Satellite measurements show maximum tundra greenness in 2025 was the 3rd highest in 26 years.

• The trend, first detected in the 1990s, signals sweeping ecological change—altering habitats, thawing permafrost, shifting carbon cycles, and affecting the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples.

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Broader Implications and the Need for Continued Monitoring

The report stresses that cross-border research, Indigenous-led monitoring, and sustained environmental observations are essential to understand and adapt to the accelerating transformations in the Arctic.

The WMO community highlights that the Arctic is the world’s most rapidly warming region—and disruptions there reverberate globally through weather extremes, sea-level rise, biodiversity shifts, and ocean circulation changes.