NOAA’s 13thArctic Report Card announced that 2018 was the second warmest year on record in the Arctic since 1900, and that the "Arctic Amplification," where the Arctic region warms at approximately twice the rate relative to the rest of the earth’s surface, continued. The effects of this amplification affects the jet stream, which NOAA described as “sluggish and unusually wavy” and contributes to atypical weather events in the Arctic and mid-latitudes, such as several severe winter storms on the East Coast of the U.S.
The persistent warming of air temperatures in the Arctic is an indicator of regional and global climate change. The warming also contributes to the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the decrease in older ice cover (i.e., more than five years old) over the Arctic circle. The ice cover continues to decrease and is thinner than in decades past. The 12 lowest extents in the satellite records have occurred in the past 12 years.