For the 12th year in a row Alaska’s Arctic temperatures have warmed faster than anywhere else in the world.
The 2025 report of the American Meteorological Society includes the latest updates on global climate-related research, including details and reflections on extreme weather events. The Arctic chapter is edited by Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, along with eight other UAF contributors.
Thoman explained that with the Arctic being 20 times as big as Alaska, these reports help to put Alaska’s experience in that pan-Arctic view.
“In Alaska, our little piece of the Arctic was cold this winter, but on the Arctic scale, warmth dominated,” he said.
Key takeaways from the Arctic chapter also note last year ocean and air temperatures were the second highest on record since 1900 and that the declining sea ice trend set a new record low during March 2025 measurements. Sea ice older than four years is now nearly absent, having declined 94% since the 1980s.
By documenting these occurrences annually, the climate report serves as a key resource for understanding and tracking change globally and in Alaska.
The climate report has served as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society since 1996.
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