The area of Arctic winter ice in 2025 has shrunk to the lowest level on record, according to a report by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre.
According to the report, the formation of new ice cover has been rapidly slowing down in recent years. This year, the maximum area of Arctic sea ice was 14.3 million square kilometres, 1.3 square kilometres below the 1981-2010 average.
The report specifies that Arctic sea ice reached its annual peak on March 22, 2025. According to climatologists, one of the main reasons for the reduction of the ice cover is global warming. In addition, strong winds that contribute to ice breakup may be an additional factor.
Melting sea ice is a serious threat to climate and biodiversity. Sea ice, reflecting solar radiation, plays a key role in maintaining the earth’s temperature balance. Its disappearance leads to increased heat absorption by the ocean and accelerated global warming. For many Arctic and Antarctic animals such as polar bears, seals and walruses, ice is the habitat they need to hunt, breed and survive. Decreasing ice cover puts these species at risk of extinction.
The situation is alarming not only because the ice is getting smaller. It is also getting thinner. As Julien Stroeve of the University of Manitoba points out, much of the current ice could melt as early as this summer. At the same time, the record low winter figures do not yet guarantee a summer anti-record – but the trend, according to scientists, is quite obvious.
The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average. This accelerated climate change is disrupting the complex north-south balance of atmospheric pressure, weakening the jet streams that regulate the movement of weather systems, and leading to delayed cyclones, extreme cold and abnormal downpours in regions far from the Arctic.
