The Arctic has experienced its hottest year since records began in 1900, the US agency NOAA said on Tuesday (December 16, 2025), reporting an alarming scenario in this region of the world particularly affected by global warming.
Between 2024 and September 2025, temperatures in the Arctic were 1.60 ° C higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, according to the annual report published this Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States (NOAA).
Study co-author Tom Ballinger of the University of Alaska told AFP that this rapid warming of the region in such a short period of time was “certainly alarming.”
The trend appears to be “unprecedented in recent times and perhaps for thousands of years,” he added.
This year’s NOAA analysis includes the Arctic’s warmest fall, as well as the second-warmest winter and third-warmest summer since 1900.
The “Arctic Reinforcement”
This region, which includes the North Pole, is affected by a phenomenon called Arctic Amplification, which causes faster warming in the mid-latitudes. This mechanism is due to numerous factors, such as loss of snow cover and sea ice.
For example, rising temperatures increase the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere, which acts like a blanket that absorbs heat and prevents it from being released into space.
At the same time, the loss of bright, reflective sea ice exposes darker seawater that absorbs more solar heat.
Sea ice retreat
Scientists at NSIDC, an organization that collects data on snow and ice, estimated that the ice pack – ice formed by the freezing of polar seas – reached its maximum area of 14.33 million km² in March, the smallest in 47 years of satellite monitoring.
This is an “immediate problem for polar bears, seals and walruses as they use the ice as a platform for movement, hunting and birthing their young,” study co-author Walt Meier of the NSIDC told AFP.
Forecasts suggest that the Arctic could experience its first summer with virtually no sea ice in 2040 or even sooner.
The loss of sea ice also disrupts ocean circulation by injecting freshwater into the North Atlantic through melting ice and increased precipitation.
Although melting sea ice does not directly raise sea levels, unlike melting on land, such as glaciers, it has numerous climatic consequences that threaten many ecosystems.
And this melting also increases climate warming, because as its surface shrinks, it exposes the ocean, which is darker than ice, reflects less and absorbs more solar energy.
jc (afp, The Guardian)
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