Record warmth in the Arctic this year

<strong>NOAA recently released their 2016 Arctic Report Card which continues to show a persistent warming trend across the region.</strong>

This annual, peer-reviewed report on the Arctic was compiled by a total of 61 international scientists. The report revealed the following.......

--2016 was the warmest year on record in the Arctic.

--The Arctic is warming at a rate that is twice as fast as the global average.

<img src="http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/climatewx/2016/590x283_12232141_screen-shot-2016-12-23-at-4.40.53-pm.png"/>

--New monthly record highs for the Arctic were set in January, February, October and November of this year.

--Just this week, temperatures within a 100 miles of the North Pole reached the freezing mark, which is about 40 to 50 degrees warmer than average!

--The annual minimum Arctic sea ice extent, which occurred in September, tied 2007 for the second lowest extent in the satellite record going back to 1979.

--Arctic sea ice continues to trend younger and thinner, which makes it more susceptible to complete melt off during the summer months.

<img src="http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/climatewx/2016/590x361_12232149_seaiceage_1985_2016_1240.png"/>

<strong>Greenland</strong>

--The Greenland Ice Sheet is <a href="http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/" target=n>losing</a> an average of 268 gigatonnes per year since 2002. There has been only one year in the past 37 years that has had an earlier onset of spring melting than what occurred in the spring of 2016.

--Melt extent in Greenland was the tenth highest in the 38-year satellite record.

<img src="http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/climatewx/2016/590x422_12232152_greenland-decline-1200.png"/>

<img src="http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/climatewx/2016/590x360_12232201_greenland_melt_area_plot.png"/>

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