Climate and Weather

2019 Arctic Report Card: Near-Record Warmth With Near-Record Sea Ice Losses

At a Glance

NOAA released its 14th-annual Arctic Report Card on Tuesday.
The Arctic region had near-record-warm air and ocean temperatures in 2019.
This resulted in widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet and low sea-ice extents.

The Arctic region took a beating in 2019, with near-record-warm air and ocean temperatures resulting in widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet, low sea-ice extents and shifts in the distribution of commercially valuable marine species, according to NOAA’s 14th-annual Arctic Report Card released Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco.

The report also found that as the Arctic warms, permafrost regions might already be a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, a feedback that could exacerbate overall global warming.

The red line shows the trend in Arctic temperatures since 1900, while the gray line shows the trend in global temperatures during the same period. The dashed gray line is the 1981-2010 global average temperature. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, according to NOAA's 2019 Arctic Report Card.
(NOAA Climate.gov, adapted from 2019 Arctic Report Card)

"The speed and trajectory of the changes sweeping the Arctic, many occurring faster than anticipated, makes NOAA’s continued investment in Arctic research and activities all the more important," Dr. Timothy Gallaudet, retired Navy Rear Admiral and deputy undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere at NOAA, said at the news conference where the report card was released Tuesday.

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The Arctic Report Card is organized into three sections: "Vital Signs," "Other Indicators" and "Frostbites."

Vital Signs provides yearly updates on seven topics: surface air temperature; terrestrial snow cover; the Greenland Ice Sheet; sea ice; sea-surface temperature; Arctic Ocean primary productivity; and tundra greenness. Other Indicators covers topics that are updated periodically, such as permafrost and the global carbon cycle. Frostbites focuses on new and emerging issues, as well as topics that relate to long-term scientific observations in the Arctic.

"The Arctic Report Card is an annual volume of original, peer-reviewed environmental observations and analysis of a region undergoing rapid and dramatic change," NOAA said in a press release. "Compiled by 81 scientists from 12 nations, the 2019 report card tracks a number of environmental indicators to inform decisions by local, state and federal leaders, as Arctic residents confront the challenges and opportunities presented by a rapidly changing climate and ecosystem."

Some of the major findings from the 2019 Arctic Report Card include:

-The average surface air temperature over land in the Arctic between October 2018 and August 2019 was the second-warmest since record-keeping began in 1900.

The progressively darker red shadings indicate temperatures that were progressively warmer than average between October 2018 and September 2019.
(NOAA Climate.gov, adapted from 2019 Arctic Report Card)

-Remarkably early snowmelt was observed in March over the northwestern Canadian Arctic and Alaska, during a month when maximum snow depth is typically reached.

-North American Arctic snow cover in May was the fifth-lowest for that month in the 53-year period of record. Then, June measured the third-lowest snow cover.

-The extent and magnitude of Greenland Ice Sheet ice loss from fall 2018 through 2019 challenged the previous record year for ice loss, 2012.

This graph shows month-to-month changes in Greenland ice mass between April 2002 and April 2019 overlaid on a NASA satellite image of the northwestern coast of the island (rotated counterclockwise about 90 degrees) from July 19, 2019. Each peak in the graph shows the snow mass gained during the winter, while each valley shows summer losses through surface melting and glacier thinning and retreat. The 17-year trend is estimated to be -267 +/- 3 billion tons per year, which is enough to have raised sea level by nearly 12 millimeters (0.5 inches).
(NOAA Climate.gov, adapted from 2019 Arctic Report Card)

-Arctic sea-ice extent at the end of summer 2019 was the second-lowest since 1979, when satellite observations began tracking it. The maximum ice cover toward the end of winter 2019 was the seventh-lowest on record.

-Bering Sea winter sea ice extent in 2019 narrowly missed surpassing the record low set in 2018.

-Reduction in sea ice and changes in bottom-water temperature caused Arctic fish species to shift to more northern waters between 2010 and 2018. Commercially valuable southern species are expanding their range northward to take advantage of changing conditions.

This collection of maps shows how the location of Arctic and sub-Arctic fish communities have changed over the past decade or so in the coastal shelves of the Bering Sea (top row) and the Barents Sea (bottom row). The ranges of communities of southern species (red outlines) have expanded northward, while the ranges of Arctic species (black outlines) have contracted northward.
(NOAA Climate.gov, adapted from 2019 Arctic Report Card)

The report card also highlighted new research on permafrost – areas where the soil remains permanently frozen just below the surface – and other Arctic ecosystems. A three-year study using NASA aircraft recently found that tundra and forest-covered parts of Alaska are already a net producer of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, during the warm season (April through November).

Few studies have been able to sample the Arctic during the long, cold winter, but a comprehensive study published this autumn in the journal Nature Climate Change indicated that more carbon was being released from the Arctic permafrost during the colder months than was being taken up during the growing season.

Together, the new studies indicate that the Arctic could be adding a net 600 million metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere per year, an amount equal to more than 5% of the carbon added from fossil fuels.

The report card did not analyze methane, another greenhouse gas locked in Arctic soils that could cause rapid warming if large amounts are suddenly released.

NOAA said the Arctic Report Card is one of the many ways it is advancing its mission in the Arctic by improving weather, ocean and sea-ice forecasts, enabling sustainable fisheries and economic activity and supporting national and homeland security.

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