Arctic winters are starting to look more like spring

The Arctic winter has changed. A season once defined by deep freeze and solid snow is now marked by rain, melting ice, and even patches of green.

On a research trip to the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard in February 2025, scientists were not met by deep snow and biting cold – but by puddles, blooming tundra, and rain. This isn’t just a freak event – it’s a sign of something bigger.

The researchers, affiliated with Queen Mary University of London and several European institutions, have published a commentary that describes what they witnessed during their latest winter field campaign.

The findings confirm what climate models have warned about for years: Arctic winters are warming fast, and the shift is reshaping the entire environment.

Warming disrupts Arctic winter

Svalbard is warming six to seven times faster than the global average. Winter temperatures in the region are rising nearly twice as fast as those in other seasons.

This means the deep freeze once expected in January and February is giving way to strange, disruptive thaws.

“Standing in pools of water at the snout of the glacier, or on bare, green tundra, was shocking and surreal,” said Dr. James Bradley. “The thick snowpack covering the landscape vanished within days. The gear I packed felt like a relic from another climate.”

His team had prepared for subzero temperatures. They packed heavy gloves, insulated clothing, and snowmobiles. But they ended up working barehanded in the rain, on a glacier.

Snow replaced by rain

Laura Molares Moncayo, a Ph.D. student at Queen Mary and the Natural History Museum, had was on a mission to study freshly fallen snow.

“But over a two-week period, we were only able to collect fresh snow once, as most of the precipitation fell as rain,” she said.

“The unexpected melt not only disrupted our sampling plan, but also made us question how safe or feasible winter fieldwork really is under such rapidly changing conditions.”

Arctic thaw is now routine

Scientists have long predicted that the Arctic would warm faster than the rest of the planet. What shocked this team was how quickly those predictions are turning into everyday reality.

When air temperatures rise above 0°C (32°F), even briefly, it changes everything. Meltwater pools form on top of frozen ground. Temporary lakes spread. Snow cover vanishes. Once-barren tundra starts blooming weeks or months too early.

These changes don’t just make it harder to do science – they trigger a ripple effect across entire ecosystems.

Microbial carbon cycling is disrupted. Permafrost starts to thaw. Greenhouse gases that were once locked underground begin to escape. Some of these effects reinforce warming, and set off feedback loops that could speed things up even more.

Arctic winter matters for everyone

The team’s commentary doesn’t just describe strange weather. It calls attention to the broader risks – especially for Indigenous Arctic communities, whose infrastructure and emergency systems were never built for rain and floods in mid-winter.

It also warns that climate research itself is at risk. Equipment designed for snow and ice can fail when surrounded by slush and water.

Snowmobiles can’t get through to field sites. Emergency escape plans rely on frozen terrain. And researchers, already under pressure to capture rare seasonal data, may be forced to pause fieldwork or pull out entirely.

“Climate policy must catch up to the reality that the Arctic is changing much faster than expected, and winter is at the heart of that shift,” said Dr. Bradley.

Arctic change demands readiness

The authors stress that more investment is needed in Arctic monitoring during winter. Right now, there’s a dangerous gap in both data and understanding of what’s happening during this fast-changing season.

They argue that policymakers need to shift from reacting to events after they happen to planning for them ahead of time.

Even well-funded research stations are struggling to operate in these new conditions. If that’s the case, what happens to small, remote communities that rely on snow roads, frozen rivers, or ice-based hunting grounds?

“We are still unaware of the consequences that these recurring events are bringing to Arctic ecosystems, especially during the winter period,” said Donato Giovannelli, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Naples Federico II.

“We might have been too cautious with our messages. Irreversible changes to the Arctic climate are happening in front of our own eyes.”

The full study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

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