Arctic air temps highest since 1900, global report shows

The Arctic is heating up, with air temperatures the hottest in 115 years, and the melting ice destroying walrus habitat and forcing some fish northward, a globalscientific report said Tuesday. 

Air temperature anomalies over land were 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above average, "the highest since records began in 1900," said the 2015Arctic Report Card, an annual peer-reviewed study issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Meanwhile, the annual sea ice maximum occurred February 25, about two weeks earlier than average, and was "the lowest extent recorded since records began in 1979."

"Warming is happening more than twice as fast in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. We know this is due to climate change, and its impacts are creating major challenges for Arctic communities," said NOAA chief scientist Rick Spinrad at the annual American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco. 

"We also know what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic," he said.

The report includes 70 authors from 10 countries, and is guided by an editorial team from the Office of Naval Research, the US Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, and NOAA.

The average annual air temperature was measured over land between October 2014 and September 2015.

It marked a 5.4 degree F (3 degree C) increase since the beginning of the 20th century.

The minimum sea ice extent, measured on September 11, 2015, was the fourth lowest in the satellite record since 1979. 

"Arctic minimum sea ice extent has been declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade" relative to the 1981-2010 average, said the findings.