Scientists warn the Arctic is getting wetter and stormier

As humans warm the planet, the Arctic, once so cold and frozen, is getting wetter and stormier, with changes in climate and seasons forcing local communities, wildlife and ecosystems to to adapt, scientists said Tuesday in an annual assessment of the region.

Despite the fact that 2022 was only the sixth warmest year on record in the Arctic, researchers this year have seen many new signs of the way things are. Changing the region.

A heat wave in September Greenlandfor example, it caused the most severe melting of the island’s ice sheet for that time of year in more than four decades of continuous satellite monitoring.

In 2021, a heat wave in August brought rain to the top of the ice cap for the first time.

“Insights into the circumpolar region are relevant to the conversation about global warming now more than ever,” said Richard Spinrad, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We are seeing how the impacts of climate change occur earlier in the polar regions“.

Temperatures in the Arctic Circle have been rising much faster than the rest of the planet, turning the region’s climate into one less defined by sea ice, snow and sleet. permafrost and more for open waters, rain and green landscapes.

Over the past four decades, the region has warmed at a rate of cfour times higher to the global average, and not two or three times as often reported, Finnish scientists said earlier this year.

According to them, some areas of the Arctic are warming up to seven times more than the world average.

Warming of the upper part of the Earth affects not only people and natural systems in the region.

It raises sea levels around the world, changes the way heat and water circulate in the oceans, and could even affect extreme weather events like heat waves and storms, scientists say.

Nearly 150 experts from 11 countries produced this year’s assessment of Arctic conditions, the “Arctic Report Card“, which NOAA has been preparing since 2006.

This year’s report was released Tuesday in Chicago at a conference of the American Geophysical Union, the society of Earth, Atmospheric, and Oceanic Scientists.

Between October 2021 and September, air temperatures over the Arctic lands were the sixth warmest since 1900, according to the report card, noting the seven warmest years were the last seven.

Rising temperatures have favored the growth of plants, shrubs and grasses in parts of the Arctic tundra, and levels of green vegetation in 2022 were the fourth-highest since 2000, particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, northern Quebec and in central Siberia.

A new chapter in this year’s report concerns rainfall in the Arctic.

Measuring snow and freezing rain is tricky there:

In the northernmost parts of the region, there aren’t many weather indicators.

Those that are there may not measure snow accurately due to windy conditions.

Instead, scientists have begun to combine direct measurements with sophisticated ones computer models to get a more complete picture.

These methods gave them the confidence to say that rainfall levels have increased significantly in the Arctic since the mid-20th century.

According to the report, this year was the third rainier in the region since 1950, in part due to brief periods of heavy rain in parts of Alaska and Norway.

However, due to warmer temperatures, excess snow doesn’t necessarily stay on the ground, according to the assessment.

Arctic snow cover was higher than average during the 2021-22 winter, but snow cover in the North American Arctic in June was the second lowest on record.

In the Eurasian Arctic, it was the third lowest.

Sea ice indicators have rebounded this year after record lows in 2021 but have remained below long-term averages, according to the assessment.

The ice usually reaches its maximum extent in March and its minimum in September.

At both times of the year, the ice levels they were among the lowest since satellites have taken reliable measurements.

The ice sheet of Greenland He’s been losing ice for the past 25 years and this year was no different.

But what most caught the attention of scientists was the extraordinary thaw that occurred in September, a phenomenon that would normally occur in midsummer.

In early September, a high-pressure system brought in warm, humid air that raised temperatures in parts of Greenland up to 36 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for that time of year.

According to the report, more than one third of the melted ice cap.

In the same month, the remains of the hurricane fiona they passed through the island and caused a new thaw in 15% of the ice sheet.

Across the Arctic, Alaska was bathed in September by Typhoon Merbok, a storm fueled by unusually warm waters in the North Pacific.

Hurricane-force winds and severe storm surges affected communities along more than 1,000 miles of coastline.

c.2022 The New York Times Company