The sea ice in the Arctic was the second lowest on record for January last month, according to a U.S. analysis released Tuesday, with areas around Greenland seeing temperatures well above average.
Both the North and South Pole regions have warmed by some three degrees Celsius compared to late 19th-century levels, much faster than the global average.
The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said the Arctic sea ice surface area was at a record low in December and continued near record lows in during January. It said the surface in January averaged 13.13 million square kilometers (5.07 million square miles).
"In contrast to the cold conditions dominating the contiguous United States, much of the Arctic experienced above-average January temperatures," the NSIDC said.
This was particularly marked north of Greenland and over central Alaska, the report said, with temperatures as much as eight degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for the month.
Greenland is located between the United States and Europe in a region of increasing strategic value as the melting of Arctic sea ice opens up new shipping routes.
President Donald Trump has signaled that he wants the Arctic island -- which is believed to hold large untapped mineral and oil reserves -- to become part of the United States.
Last year annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic were the second-warmest on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Rising temperatures melt sea ice which in turn contributes to accelerated warming in the region, as dark sea water absorbs more solar radiation and thus helps to heat up the atmosphere, which then further accelerates the melting of the ice.
In a 2023 study, researchers found that the Arctic Ocean's ice cap would likely disappear in summer as soon as the 2030s and a decade earlier than thought, no matter how aggressively humanity draws down the carbon pollution that drives global warming.
The retreating ice also has a major impact on polar bears, which need sea ice to hunt.
A study published in the journal Science last week found that around half of the decline in Canada's Hudson Bay polar bears from 1979 to 2021 was due to climate-driven sea ice loss.
© 2025 AFP
7 Comments
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Zaphod
...it was supposed to disappear in 2005, 2008, 2015 already, depending on which "scientific" pontificator you listen to.
That old canard has been debunked so many times; the writer must have been living under a rock.
ifd66
Temperatures are currently 20C above average according to another news story. Very worrying.
ifd66
Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/04/temperatures-at-north-pole-20c-above-average-and-beyond-ice-melting-point
rainyday
Fact: The Arctic is getting warmer.
Fact: Ice melts when its warm.
I have no idea which "pontificators" specified those exact years or if you are just making it up, but if they were saying the ice is going to melt then they were correct.
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virusrex
You keep making that claim, and then you only bring declarations from people that are not scientific experts, that alone proves the claim is false.
Peter Neil
the nsidc is not a government organization, but complies data with nasa and noaa, which are. they already had this data before trump began scrubbing all government sites of all climate related information.
scientists working in u.s. government positions, who “believe” climate change is occurring, are being culled.
iknowall
Second lowest, so better than being the lowest, But that's the weather.