The Arctic is Heating Up, Disrupting the Planet and Local Communities, NOAA Report Shows

Mid-September, 2022, was not a good time to be living along the Bering Coast in Western Alaska. That was the week Typhoon Merbok, a Category One storm, struck the region, packing sustained winds of 130 km/h (80 mph), causing 15 m (50 ft.) waves and inundating communities along 1,600 km (1,000 mi.) of coastline. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a state of disaster on Sept. 17, saying at the time, “The storm hitting the coastal regions of western Alaska is unprecedented.” And indeed it was. Merbok was caused by unusually warm coastal waters in the North Pacific, part of the overall change in climate that has been affecting the Arctic region for the past 40 years. On Dec. 13, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released its 2022 “Arctic Report Card,” surveying the climatic health of the entire region, and the grades it gave were grim. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] This year, Arctic air temperatures, NOAA reported, were the sixth warmest on record, going all the way back to 1900. Snow cover was the second lowest dating back 56 years across the North American Arctic and the third lowest across the Eurasian portion. The Greenland ice sheet experienced melt conditions across 36% of its surface, marking the 25th consecutive year of ice loss from the country’s land mass. The extent of Arctic sea ice was more than 36% below 1979 averages in September—a fact exacerbated by surface sea temperatures that we...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized adaptation climate change Climate Is Everything healthscienceclimate Source Type: news