Climate change driving warmer, wetter, stormier Arctic conditions: NOAA

Climate change made conditions in the Arctic wetter and stormier in 2022, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA report determined the past year has been the region’s sixth-warmest year on record, and the Greenland ice sheet lost ice for the 25th consecutive year.

Annual air temperatures in the Arctic between October 2021 and September 2022 were the sixth warmest dating back to 1900. Overall, surface air temperatures were about 0.73 degrees Celsius warmer than the average from 1991 to 2020. All of the 10 recorded years for the Arctic were later than 2011.

The trend applied on land as well, according to the federal agency. Land temperatures were 1.31 degrees warmer than the 1991-2020 average.

Summer 2022 in particular featured “contrasting extremes,” according to NOAA. The past summer was the third wettest recorded in the region in 72 years, with the wet conditions particularly affecting areas in southern and southeastern Alaska. Parts of northern Norway, meanwhile, saw their highest-ever levels of rainfall for July.

The summer saw a number of storms that are likely to continue to affect conditions in the region, according to NOAA. For example, Typhoon Merbok, which was strengthened by unusually warm Pacific temperatures, hit western Alaska in September, displacing local residents and disrupting the region’s harvest and hunting seasons. Storms in the Bering Sea were likely a contributing factor in increased primary productivity, or sea life converting inorganic material into food.

“With this important new chapter and other timely additions, the 2022 Arctic Report Card underscores the urgency to confront the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gasses and taking steps to be more resilient,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. “The report provides observations and analysis to help build a Climate-Ready Nation in a region on the front lines of climate change.”