Extreme weather events

Temperatures in the United States

As illustrated by the above image, adapted from a NOAA forecast, a massive winter storm is forecast to hit much of the U.S. (forecast valid through January 26, 2026).

The above image, adapted from ClimateReanalyzer, shows that temperature anomalies as low as -45°F (-25°C) are forecast to hit Texas on January 24, 2026. 

The above image, adapted from ClimateReanalyzer, shows that temperatures as low as 9°F (-12.78°C) are forecast to hit Texas on January 24, 2026.

The above image, adapted from nullschool.net, shows temperatures as low as -0.8°F (-18.12°C) forecast to hit Kansas on January 24, 20026 (at the green circle).

Temperatures in Russia

The image below shows that, on January 26, 2026, temperatures in Russia were as low as -52°F (-46.6°C) at a location in Russia at 63.5°N (green circle). This is well outside of the Arctic Circle, which is at 66°3'N. Within the Arctic Circle, sunlight is absent on the winter solstice. 

As temperatures keep rising, many feedbacks are striking with increasing vigor, resulting in higher temperature anomalies at the Arctic (polar amplification), resulting in more cold air descending deeper outside of the Arctic Circle (Jet Stream distortion), and resulting in more massive snowfall (7% more water in the air for each 1°C rise in temperature). 

Jet Stream distortion and further feedbacks

For some, the cold weather forecasts may raise questions as to how this can happen, given the overwhelming scientific evidence that global temperatures are rising as a result of activities by people.

The image below may be helpful when responding to such questions. The image shows Wind + Instantaneous Wind Power Density at 250 hPa, at an altitude where the Jet Stream is strong. The image illustrates that, because temperatures over continents are low in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year while sea surface temperature are high due to global warming, there is a strong difference between temperatures over land and temperatures over the ocean. This strong temperature difference strengthens the speed of latitudinal winds, i.e. the prevailing wind patterns that are moving east-west across Earth, driven by solar heating differences and the Coriolis effect.

[ click on images to enlarge ]

The above image shows a wind speed of 377 km/h and a Wind Power Density of 206.8 kW/m² at 250 hPa at the green circle off the coast of Japan. Furthermore, polar amplification narrows the temperature difference between the Equator and the poles, which distorts the path of the Jet Stream, resulting in circular wind patterns at higher altitudes North. 

The Jet Stream used to keep cold air in the Arctic, separated from warmer air at lower latitudes. A distorted Jet Stream causes the Arctic to heat up strongly, while lower latitudes get colder, as illustrated by the image below, showing the temperature anomaly on January 24, 2026, 18z. This has been coined the 'open doors' feedback, it's like the door of the freezer is left open. 

The combination image below shows images adapted from Copernicus. The image on the left shows temperature anomalies at the bottom end of the scale over parts of North America and Russia on January 24, 2026, while temperature anomalies are at the top end of the scale over much of the Arctic. The image on the right shows absolute temperatures on January 24, 2025, further illustrating to what extent cold air has descended from the Arctic over the continents.

The image below shows the temperature anomaly (left) and the minimum temperature (right) on January 25, 2026, with images adapted from ClimateReanalyzer. 

The image below shows the 2025 temperature anomaly versus 1951-1980 (NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis v1). The highest anomalies show up at the poles, reflecting polar amplification of the temperature rise, caused by decline of the snow and ice cover and by further feedbacks.

[ from earlier post ]

The global temperature rise comes with many feedbacks, including more water vapor in the atmosphere, polar amplification of the temperature rise and distortion of the Jet Stream, which can at times result in unusually low temperatures over continents in the Northern Hemisphere.

Importantly, distortion of the Jet Stream can at times also result in large amounts of ocean heat getting carried into the Arctic Ocean, abruptly heating up the water of the Arctic Ocean and threatening to destabilize methane hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor, resulting in huge methane eruptions.

Climate Emergency Declaration

The situation is dire and unacceptably dangerous, and the precautionary principle necessitates rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the outlook, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as described in posts such as in this 2022 post and this 2025 post, and as discussed in the Climate Plan group.

Links

• The threat of seafloor methane eruptions
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-threat-of-seafloor-methane-eruptions.html

• Feedbacks in the Arctic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html

• Water Vapor Feedback
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/09/water-vapor-feedback.html

• Jet Stream
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/jet-stream.html

• Opening further Doorways to Doom
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/opening-further-doorways-to-doom.html

• NOAA - weather forecasts
https://graphical.weather.gov

• Trump Mocks Climate Change Concerns Ahead of Historic Winter Storm. Here’s Why That’s Wrong
https://time.com/7357480/trump-winter-storm-fern-climate-change

• Wild Weather Swings
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/12/wild-weather-swings.html

• Extreme weather gets more extreme
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/08/extreme-weather-gets-more-extreme.html

• Copernicus
https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu

• Climate Reanalyzer
https://climatereanalyzer.org

• nullschool.net

https://earth.nullschool.net

• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html

• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html

• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html

Wild Weather Swings

The above image, adapted from ClimateReanalyzer, shows temperature anomalies of more than 40°F (22.22°C) higher than 1979-2000 forecast for December 25, 2025 (21:00 UTC) over parts of the United States, discussed here on facebook. 

Earlier forecasts warned about even higher anomalies over the Arctic, as illustrated by the image below.

As temperatures rise, extreme weather events are striking with increasingly stronger ferocity, heightened intensity, longer duration, greater frequency and wider ubiquity.

The above image shows temperature anomalies of more than 28°C above 1979-2000 forecast over the Arctic Ocean for December 24, 2025 06z.

The image on the right shows that extremely high daily average temperature anomalies hit parts of the Arctic Ocean and Greenland on December 22, 2025, while that same day extremely low daily temperature anomalies hit parts of Canada, Alaska and Siberia. 

The image on the right shows a temperature at the North Pole of -4.3°C or 24.3°F on December 14, 2025 17:00 UTC (also discussed in this post on facebook).

Distortion of the Jet Stream can cause extreme weather events and wild weather swings. The image below shows how the Jet Stream is forecast to form an 'Omega' pattern at 250 hPa over Greenland on December 21, 2025 18:00 UTC, with temperatures on the east coast of Greenland forecast to be as high as 7.1°C or 44.7°F. 

Strong wind can abruptly push huge amounts of ocean heat from the Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean.  

An influx of warm, salty water into the Arctic Ocean can penetrate sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean that contain vast amounts of methane in the form of methane hydrates and free gas underneath such hydrates. Greater salinity and higher temperatures can cause such hydrates to destabilize, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane and in rapid global warming. 

Such a rapid warming scenario could unfold if triggered by a stronger-than-expected El Niño event, as follows:

1. a stronger-than-expected El Niño would contribute to
2. early demise of the Arctic sea ice, i.e. latent heat tipping point + 
3. associated loss of sea ice albedo, 
4. destabilization of seafloor methane hydrates, causing eruption of vast amounts of methane that further speed up Arctic warming and cause 
5. terrestrial permafrost to melt as well, resulting in even more emissions, 
6. while the Jet Stream gets even more deformed, resulting in more extreme weather events
7. causing forest fires, at first in Siberia and Canada and
8. eventually also in the peat fields and tropical rain forests of the Amazon, in Africa and South-east Asia, resulting in 
9. rapid melting on the Himalayas, temporarily causing huge flooding, 
10. followed by drought, famine, heat waves and mass starvation, and
11. collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

[ image from earlier post, click on images to enlarge ]

The next El Niño

[ click on images to enlarge ]

The image on the right shows a NOAA update of Niño-3.4 region temperature anomalies and forecasts. NOAA considers La Niña conditions to occur when a one-month negative sea surface temperature anomaly of -0.5° C or less is observed in the Niño-3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific Ocean (5°N-5°S, 120°W-170°W). Also, there must be an expectation that the 3-month Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) threshold will be met, and an atmospheric response typically associated with La Niña is observed over the equatorial Pacific Ocean. These anomalies must also be forecasted to persist for 3 consecutive months.

[ from an earlier post ]

The image on the right, adapted from NOAA, shows ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) probabilities, with El Niño (red bar) emerging in the course of 2026.

The graph below, adapted from tropicaltidbits, uses CDAS (Climate Data Assimilation System) data showing an anomaly of -1.268°C on Dec 27, 2025. 

The graph gives another idea as to how deep we have descended into La Niña  conditions. 

The image below, from an earlier post and adapted from ECMWF, shows the ENSO anomalies and forecasts for developments through November 2026 in Niño3.4 (left panel) and in Niño1+2 (right panel), indicating that the next El Niño will emerge and strengthen in the course of 2026.

Temperature anomalies in the Niño-3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific Ocean (5°N-5°S, 120°W-170°W) are indicative for ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) conditions. The image below shows anomalies in that region on December 14, 2025, of 0.9° C below 1991-2020, a move deeper into La Niña conditions, which is suppressing temperatures at the moment and that may cause the next El Niño for many to come as a shock. 

The CDAS analysis below shows very low sea surface temperature anomalies (in blue) in the Niño3.4 area in the Central Pacific on December 27, 2025. 

Moving from the depth of a La Niña to the peak of a strong El Niño in itself can make a difference in the global temperature of more than 0.5°C, as discussed in an earlier post. This comes on top of feedbacks such as albedo loss and increased water vapor in the atmosphere.

Sea ice

As the image below shows, Antarctic sea ice extent was 1.998 million km² on March 1, 2025 and it was 7.569 million km² on December 25, 2025. What Antarctic extent will be on March 1, 2026, is discussed here on facebook.

The image below shows global sea ice concentration and snow cover on December 26, 2025. 

[ click on images to enlarge ]

Both sea ice extent and concentration are currently low at both poles, contributing to albedo loss, i.e. less sunlight getting reflected back into space and instead getting absorbed by the surface. This leads to an increase in global temperatures, which in turn causes further decline of the snow and ice cover, as well as loss of lower clouds, in a self-amplifying feedback loop. 

This spells bad news for Antarctic sea ice. The Antarctic sea ice is expected to reach its minimum in February 2026. The image on the right, adapted from a University of Bremen image, shows Antarctic sea ice concentration on December 26, 2025, while illustrating that albedo decline can occur both due to shrinking, and due to melt pools, cracks, thinning and particles (black carbon, dust, algae, etc.), as also discussed here on facebook. 

The next image on the right is adapted from a NSIDC image and also shows the Antarctic sea ice concentration, on December 25, 2025. Additionally, the image shows the median Antarctic sea ice edge 1981-2010 highlighted in orange.

The danger is that a Double Blue Ocean Event will occur in 2026, i.e. sea ice approaching a low of one million km² both for Antarctic sea ice and Arctic sea ice. 

The image below, adapted from a Uni of Bremen image, shows Antarctic sea ice thickness on December 26, 2025. 

While the Antarctic methane danger has been described before, such as in this April 2013 post, the main focus of the Arctic-news blog has long been on the Arctic, in particular on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS). However, recent research highlights the dire situation in Antarctica, justifying an additional wider focus on global developments, as discussed on facebook.

The above image, from Ted Scambos et al. (2017), also features in an earlier post and illustrates the dangerous situation in Antarctica. The danger of progressively stronger intrusions of warm and salty water underneath Antarctic glaciers is also discussed in this recent study. The danger is that this can cause glacier collapse and destabilization of methane hydrates, in turn causing eruption of huge amounts of methane held in and underneath such hydrates, as also discussed here on facebook.

[ click on images to enlarge ]

The danger of an Antarctic Blue Ocean Event occurring in February 2026 is illustrated by the image on the right, which shows Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies through December 12, 2025.

An Antarctic Blue Ocean Event in February 2026 in turn would threaten to trigger an Arctic Blue Ocean Event later in 2026.

Ominously, Arctic sea ice extent was 11.19 million km² on December 22, 2025, a record low for the time of year. What makes this record daily low even more significant is that it was reached without El Niño conditions elevating temperatures. 

The image below, adapted from NSIDC, shows Arctic sea ice extent through December 23, 2025. 

Arctic sea ice volume is also at a record low for the time of year, it has been at a record daily low for well over a year. The image below shows Arctic sea ice volume through December 23, 2025. 

Temperature

Loss of Antarctic sea ice elevates global temperatures, due to albedo loss, which could persist through September 2026, when Arctic sea ice typically reaches its minimum extent. This is illustrated by the image below that shows a forecast for September 2026 of very high temperature anomalies around Antarctica and over the Arctic Ocean. 

Methane

The methane danger is illustrated by the image below that shows hourly average in situ methane measurements well above 2400 ppb (parts per billion). The image is adapted from an image issued by NOAA December 24, 2025. The image shows methane recorded over the past few years at the Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (BRW), a NOAA facility located near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, at 71.32 degrees North latitude.

The methane danger is discussed in many earlier posts such as this one. Seafloor methane and methane from thawing terrestrial permafrost can add significantly and abruptly to the temperature rise.

The danger of methane hydrates destabilization is further illustrated by the screenshot below. 

[ screenshot from earlier post ]

Climate Emergency Declaration

UN secretary-general António Guterres recently spoke about the need for “a credible global response plan to get us on track” regarding the international goal of limiting the global temperature rise. “The science demands action, the law commands it,” Guterres said, in reference to a recent international court of justice ruling. “The economics compel it and people are calling for it.”

What could be added is that the situation is dire and unacceptably dangerous, and the precautionary principle necessitates rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the outlook, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as described in posts such as this 2022 post and this one and as discussed in the Climate Plan group.

Links

• Japanese National Institute of Polar Research
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop

• Extreme weather
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extreme-weather.html

• Cold freshwater lid on North Atlantic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/cold-freshwater-lid-on-north-atlantic.html

• DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) - Arctic sea ice thickness and volume
https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/thk.uk.php

• Kevin Pluck - Sea ice visuals
https://seaice.visuals.earth

• Ocean submesoscales as drivers of submarine melting within Antarctic ice cavities - by Mattia Poinelli et al.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01831-z
Also discussed on Facebook at: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/arcticnews/posts/10163636947369679

• Climate Reanalyzer
https://climatereanalyzer.org

• University of Bremen

https://seaice.uni-bremen.de/start

• NSIDC - National Snow and Ice Data Center

https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today

• Tropicaltidbits.com
https://www.tropicaltidbits.com

• The threat of seafloor methane eruptions
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-threat-of-seafloor-methane-eruptions.html

• Feedbacks in the Arctic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html

• NOAA - Global Monitoring Laboratory - Data Visualisation - flask and station methane measurements
https://gml.noaa.gov/dv/iadv

• Focus on Antarctica
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2025/09/focus-on-antarctica.html

• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html

• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html

• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html

Global warming to blame for low temperatures in North America

A temperature of -40°C (-39.9°F) was recorded at the circle on February 19, 2025 14:00 UTC, as illustrated by the above image.

What made this possible? 

Temperature anomalies were very high in January 2025 in the Arctic, as illustrated by the image on the right.

Arctic sea ice extent is currently at a record low for the time of year. Temperatures of the water in the Arctic Ocean have been very high, resulting in very low sea ice volume, as illustrated by the image underneath on the right. 

Arctic amplification of global warming at times causes the Jet Stream to become very wavy, enabling cold air from the Arctic to spread over deep over continents (i.e. North America, Asia and Europe).

At the same time, a more wavy Jet Stream enables more heat to abruptly move north from the North Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, threatening to cause destabilization of methane hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane.

More extreme weather

Global warming is causing more extreme weather events all around the world, and as temperatures keep rising, these events look set to become more extreme, i.e. hitting larger areas for longer, with higher frequency and greater intensity. 

[ from earlier post ]

The image below shows a deformed Jet Stream (lines show wind pattern) forecast for February 20, 2025 12:00 UTC, with high relative humidity at 250 hPa (left) and a 3-hour precipitation accumulation of 55.2 mm forecast at the green circle (right).

The image below shows temperature anomalies (°F) forecast for February 20, 2025 12:00 UTC over North America.

The image below shows a forecast of the actual temperature (°F) on February 20, 2025 12:00 UTC over North America.

The image below shows a temperature of -1.2° C (29.9°F) that is forecast to hit New Orleans (circle) on February 20,2025 13:00 UTC. 

Climate Emergency Declaration

The situation is dire and the precautionary principle calls for rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the situation, as described in this 2022 post, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as discussed at this group.

Links

• Climate Reanalyzer
https://climatereanalyzer.org

• nullschool.net
https://earth.nullschool.net

• NOAA - Understanding the Arctic polar vortex
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/understanding-arctic-polar-vortex
also discussed on facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/arcticnews/posts/10162311831389679

• Double Blue Ocean Event 2025?
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/10/double-blue-ocean-event-2025.html

• Danish Meteorological Institute - Arctic sea ice volume and thickness
https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/thk.uk.php

• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html

• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html

• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html

Feedbacks

Water vapor feedback

There are numerous self-amplifying feedbacks that accelerate the temperature rise. One of them is the water vapor feedback. Just the temperature rise itself will cause more water vapor to be in the atmosphere.

[ from Moistening Atmosphere ]

The February 2024 temperature was 1.76°C above 1885-1915, which could be as much as 2.75°C above the pre-industrial temperature.

A 2.75°C rise corresponds with almost ⅕ more water vapor in the atmosphere, as the extinction page points out. 

The increase in water vapor in the atmosphere is a self-amplifying feedback, since water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, accelerating the temperature rise, as illustrated by the image on the right.

As illustrated by the image below, created with NOAA data, surface precipitable water reached 26.741 kg/m² in June 2024.

As the above image also illustrates, surface precipitable water reached a record high of 27.139 kg/m² in July 2023, and was much higher for each of the first six months in 2024 than for the same months in 2023. 

More emissions of greenhouse gases (from earlier post)

As temperatures rise, due to stronger emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, there will be a corresponding extra amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.   

Studies such as by Hubau (2020) warn that the uptake of carbon into Earth’s intact tropical forests peaked in the 1990s. Thawing permafrost can cause huge emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Studies now warn that the Arctic has also changed from sink to source.

A study by Del Vecchi et al. (2024) suggests that a gradual thawing of Arctic permafrost could release between 22 billion and 432 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2100 if current greenhouse gas emissions are reined in — and as much as 550 billion tons if they are not.

An analysis by Ramage et al. (2024) concludes that Arctic terrestrial permafrost now emits more greenhouse gases than it stores, and the trend is likely to accelerate as temperatures keep rising in the Arctic. The highest carbon dioxide emissions over the 2000-2020 period came from inland rivers and wildfires. The non-permafrost wetlands exhaled the most methane, and dry tundra released the most nitrous oxide.

The prospect of further releases looks dire. The analysis gives estimates that the upper three meters of permafrost region soils store 1,000 Gt of soil organic carbon, while deeper deposits could store an additional amount of as much as 1,000 Gt C. The analysis concludes that the permafrost region is the largest terrestrial carbon and nitrogen pool on Earth.

Note that the joint CO₂e of emissions in this analysis only covers part of global emissions, e.g. the analysis excludes emissions from Arctic subsea permafrost and from oceans in general, from many mountain areas and from the Southern Hemisphere. The study also appears to have excluded emissions caused by anthropogenic disturbances such as clear-cutting, logging and fracking activities in the region, while calculations typically use a low global warming potential (GWP) for methane (100-year horizon).

Miesner et al. (2023) warn that an additional 2822 Gt of organic carbon is stored in subsea Arctic shelf permafrost and Huang et al. (2024) warn that the top two meters of soil globally holds about 2300 Gt of inorganic carbon, which has been left out of environmental models, and 23 Gt of this carbon may be released over the next 30 years.

The transition from sink to source of the region is an important feedback of the temperature rise that is not fully reflected in many climate models. According to the IPCC, 14–175 Gt CO₂e (in carbon dioxide and methane) gets released per 1°C of global warming, which is likely to underestimate the situation by downplaying many feedbacks. Despite the dire situation, the IPCC keeps promoting less effective policies such as support for biofuel and tighter fuel efficiency standards, as discussed in earlier posts such as this 2022 one.

Further feedbacks

The image below illustrates the mechanism of how multiple feedbacks accelerate the heating up of the atmosphere.

Feedback #1: albedo loss (loss of reflectivity) as sea ice melts due to rising temperatures and due to the ice getting covered by soot, dust, algae, meltpools and rainwater pools;

Feedback #14: loss of the latent heat buffer - as sea ice disappears, heat can no longer be consumed by the process of melting, and the heat will instead go into increasing the temperature;

Feedback #16: eruptions of seafloor methane - as more heat reaches the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, sediments and hydrates contained in them destabilize, resulting in methane releases;

Feedback #25: extra water vapor feedback - rising temperatures will result in more water vapor in the atmosphere (7% more water vapor for every 1°C warming), further amplifying the temperature rise, since water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas;

Feedback #19: distortion of the Jet Stream as the temperature difference narrows between the Arctic and the Tropics, in turn causing further feedbacks to kick in stronger, such as hot air moving into the Arctic and cold air moving out, and more extreme weather events bringing heavier rain and more intense heatwaves, droughts and forest fires that cause black carbon to settle on the sea ice;

Feedback #28: freshwater lid on the North Atlantic - melting of sea ice and glaciers and thawing of the permafrost results in meltwater accumulating in the North Atlantic, where it forms a cold freshwater lid on top of the water; this lid grows further due to more rain falling on top of this lid. This results in less evaporation and transfer of heat from the North Atlantic to the atmosphere, and more ocean heat getting carried by the Gulf Stream underneath the sea surface into the Arctic Ocean.

There is interaction between feedbacks; the image's focus is on illustrating the mechanism, rather than the proportional contribution or the order of feedbacks over time. Sea ice decline comes with both loss of albedo and loss of the latent heat buffer, each of which will accelerate the temperature rise of the water of the Arctic Ocean, thus contributing to the threat that hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean will be destabilized, which in turn threatens to cause eruption of huge amounts of methane. 

A further danger lies in changes occurring to wind and ocean current patterns; the temperature rise will cause stronger wind, waves and storms, as well as deformation of the Jet Stream. In addition, the temperature rise causes loss of reflectivity of clouds and more ocean stratification, exacerbated by more freshwater accumulating at the surface of oceans, due to stronger ice melting, due to heavier runoff from land and rivers and due to changes in wind patterns and ocean currents and circulation. In the North Atlantic, there is the additional danger that formation of a freshwater lid will cause huge amounts of ocean heat to be pushed into the Arctic Ocean and enter the atmosphere as sea ice disappears. 

Further developments

Furthermore, developments such as rising emissions from industry, transport, land use, forest fires and waste fires, ocean acidification and reductions in sulfur emissions can all contribute to further acceleration of the temperature rise.

Climate Emergency Declaration

The situation is dire and the precautionary principle calls for rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the situation, as described in this 2022 post, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as discussed at this group.

Links

• Moistening Atmosphere
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/moistening-atmosphere.html

• Did the climate experience a Regime Change in 2023?

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/04/did-the-climate-experience-a-regime-change-in-2023.html

• Pre-industrial
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/pre-industrial.html

• Extinction
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html

• NOAA - Physical Sciences Laboratory
https://psl.noaa.gov

• Arctic Sea Ice Alert

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/06/arctic-sea-ice-alert.html

• Will there be Arctic sea ice left in September 2023?

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2023/05/will-there-be-arctic-sea-ice-left-in-september-2023.html

• Feedbacks in the Arctic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html

• Albedo
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/albedo.html

• Jet Stream
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/jet-stream.html

• Latent Heat
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/latent-heat.html

• Cold freshwater lid on North Atlantic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/cold-freshwater-lid-on-north-atlantic.html

• Arctic Ocean Feedbacks
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/arctic-ocean-feedbacks.html

• Arctic sea ice set for steep decline
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/03/arctic-sea-ice-set-for-steep-decline.html

• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html

• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html

• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html