The Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world’s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis, scientists have reported.From October 2024 to September 2025, temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the hottest in 125 years of modern record keeping, NOAA said, with the last 10 years being the 10 warmest on record in the Arctic.The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world’s refrigerator — a region that acts as a key climate regulator for the rest of the planet.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe maximum extent of sea ice in 2025 was the lowest in the 47-year satellite record, NOAA reported on in its annual Arctic report card. This is the latest landmark in a longer trend, with the region’s oldest, thickest ice declining by more than 95 percent since the 1980s as the Arctic becomes hotter and rainier.This year was a record for precipitation in the Arctic. Much of this is not settling as snow — the June snow cover extent over the Arctic today is half of what it was six decades ago.“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, an Arctic scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado and an editor of the Arctic report card. “This year has really underscored what is to come.”Scientists have been struck by how exceptional warmth in other seasons, particularly summer, is now becoming evident in winter too, affecting the annual growth of sea ice across the Arctic in its coldest months. In the past month or so, sea ice extent has been the lowest on record, potentially heralding another reduced maximum for sea ice next year.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“There’s been a steady decline in …
