Warming Arctic’s Impacts Reaching Beyond the Far North

Warming trends are pushing the Arctic into uncharted territory, and scientists say the sweeping changes are poised to affect people well beyond the polar region.

Surface temperatures over Arctic lands in 2018 ranked second highest since the observational record began in 1900, topped only by 2016, according to the 2018 Arctic Report Card released Dec. 11 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Arctic region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe due to climate change.

The report, in its 13th year, begins for the first time to make connections between the warming Arctic ...