Arctic report card : Arctic report card 2012

The Arctic Report Card (www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/) considers a wide range of environmental observations throughout the Arctic, and is updated annually. A major finding of the Report Card 2012 is that numerous record-setting melting events occurred, even though, Arctic-wide, it was an unremarkable year, relative to the previous decade, for a primary driver of melting--surface air temperatures. The exception was Greenland where record-breaking air temperatures and near-ice sheet-wide surface melting occurred in summer 2012. From October 2011 through August 2012, positive (warm) temperature anomalies were relatively small over the central Arctic compared to conditions in recent years (2003-2010). Yet, in spite of these moderate conditions, new records were set for sea ice extent, terrestrial snow extent and permafrost temperature.