By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer:
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Warming at the top of the world has gone into overdrive, happening
twice as fast as the rest of the globe, and extending unnatural heating into
fall and winter, according to a new federal report.
(AP) — Warming at the top of the world has gone into overdrive, happening
twice as fast as the rest of the globe, and extending unnatural heating into
fall and winter, according to a new federal report.
In its annual Arctic Report Card , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration on Tuesday tallied record after record of high temperatures, low
sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers. Study lead author Jeremy Mathis,
NOAA’s Arctic research chief, said it shows long-term Arctic warming trends
deepening and becoming more obvious, with a disturbing creep into seasons
beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice.
Administration on Tuesday tallied record after record of high temperatures, low
sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers. Study lead author Jeremy Mathis,
NOAA’s Arctic research chief, said it shows long-term Arctic warming trends
deepening and becoming more obvious, with a disturbing creep into seasons
beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice.
Scientists have long said man-made climate change would hit the
Arctic fastest. Mathis and others said the data is
showing that is what’s now happening.
“Personally, I would have to say that this last year has
been the most extreme year for the Arctic that I have ever seen,” said
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder,
Colorado, who wasn’t part of the 106-page report. “It’s crazy.”
NOAA’s peer-reviewed report said air temperatures over the
Arctic from October 2015 to September 2016 were “by far the highest in the
observational record beginning in 1900.” The average Arctic air
temperature at that time was 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) warmer than the
1981-2010 average. It’s 6.3 degrees (3.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than 1900.
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