Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 18 August 2025)
A 6-week period of record-high air temperatures during summer 2024 left a serious dent on Svalbard’s glaciers, resulting in 1% of this region’s total ice volume lost. This rapid melt from Svalbard actually exceeded that of the Greenland Ice Sheet – which is 50 times larger – during this period. Persistent atmospheric circulation patterns contributed to these extremely warm conditions, exceeding any past observations and nearly doubling the previous melt record. Four of the past five years have set new records for summer ice loss in Svalbard. Future climate projections suggest that such temperature levels will become increasingly frequent and even more intense by the end of the century under current emissions. Svalbard ice loss during 2024 therefore serves as a forecast for future glacier meltdown in the Arctic.
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