In many locations, spring snow also melts earlier, reducing summer streamflows.
The February 2022 climate outlook favors warmer-than-average temperatures across the southern and eastern U.S., with cooler and wetter conditions favored across the north. Out West, a drier-than-average month is forecast.
It's been 45 years since the planet had a cooler-than-average year.
Ice older than 4 years once dominated the winter ice pack in the Arctic. Today, only a tiny fraction of old, thick survives.
But fires and other disturbances create patches of "browning" in satellites' view of Arctic vegetation.
Greenland has lost ice mass every year since 1998. Losses in 2021 would have added about 0.2 millimeters to global sea level.
A record-warm autumn boosted Arctic 2020-21 surface temperatures to the rank of seventh-warmest year on record since 1900.
Climate change is transforming the Arctic into a ‘dramatically different state.’ Browse this collection of image highlights from NOAA's 2021 Arctic Report Card.
The December 2021 climate outlook favors a warmer-than-average end to 2021 for much of the country, with odds tilted towards a drier-than-average December for the Southeast