In winter, the Arctic should be a stunning white landscape – a pristine world of ice and falling snow spanning thousands of miles.
But shocking photos reveal the new reality at the North pole, thanks to climate change.
Scientists from London who travelled to Svalbard in February and early March report a ‘dramatic and concerning shift in the Arctic winter’.
At the Norwegian territory, they encountered exceptionally high temperatures, widespread snowmelt, and blooming vegetation.
Within a few decades, huge parts of the Arctic in winter could look like the lowlands of Scotland, the experts predict.
Dr James Bradley, expedition member and environmental scientist at Queen Mary University of London, calls for urgent climate action to reduce global warming.
‘Standing in pools of water at the snout of the glacier, or on bare, green tundra, was shocking and surreal,’ he said.
‘Climate policy must catch up to the reality that the Arctic is changing much faster than expected.’
Scientists from London who travelled to Svalbard in February and March report a ‘dramatic and concerning shift in the Arctic winter’. There they encountered exceptionally high temperatures, widespread snowmelt, and blooming vegetation
Researchers report: ‘Vegetation emerged through the melting snow and ice, displaying green hues typically associated with spring and summer’
Dr Bradley and a few other colleagues travelled to Svalbard, a Norwegian territory, for a fieldwork campaign in February this year.
At Svalbard, which sits within the Arctic Circle, they experienced ‘exceptionally’ high air temperatures, among the warmest ever recorded in the Arctic.
For example, in Ny-Ålesund, north-west Svalbard and about 745 miles (1,200km) from the North Pole, the air temperature average for February 2025 was -3.3°C/26°F.
This is considerably higher than the 1961-2001 average in the region for this time of year of -15°C/5°F.
The team witnessed widespread pooling of meltwater into ‘vast temporary lakes’, which they were able to walk through like gigantic puddles.
Meanwhile, vegetation emerged through the melting snow and ice, displaying ‘green hues’ typically associated with spring and summer.
‘Blooms of biological activity were widespread across the thawing tundra,’ say the researchers in their paper, published in Nature Communications.
‘Surface soils, which are typically frozen solid during this time of the year, thawed such that they were soft enough to be directly sampled with a spoon.’
Warming over Svalbard in February 2025: Image shows surface air temperature anomaly for February 2025 over the Arctic region relative to the February average for the period 1991–2020. Svalbard is about 500 miles north of mainland Norway, east of Greenland
Rainfall over Svalbard triggered widespread snowmelt and pooling of meltwater, which the researchers were able to walk through like giant puddles. Pictured, a meltwater pooling above frozen ground at the snout of Midtre Lovénbreen glacier, February 26, 2025
Svalbard, warming at six to seven times the global average rate, is at the forefront of the climate crisis, according to the team
There was also a lack of snowfall, which instead fell as rain – indicating warmer than usual conditions.
The team were used to donning thermal layers and thick gloves, but they often found themselves working bare-handed in the rain.
‘The gear I packed felt like a relic from another climate,’ said Dr Bradley.
Human communities and infrastructure at Svalbard are threatened by winter warming like this, partly due to the possibility of avalanches.
The team warn of unstable ‘snowpack’ – the accumulation of snow on the ground, compacted by its own weight – which increases avalanche risk.
They even questioned their own safety at Svalbard, suggesting that future fieldwork might not be feasible.
Svalbard, the world’s northernmost permanent settlement, is at the ‘front line’ of the climate crisis as it is warming at six to seven times the global average rate.
Human-caused global warming is particularly amplified in the Arctic, causing the climate there to warm more quickly than the rest of the Earth.
Over a two-week period, researchers were only able to collect fresh snow once, as most of the precipitation fell as rain
A snow pit on Autre Brøggerbreen, March 1, 2025. The snow depth (from the snow surface to the glacier ice surface) was 60 cm, with multiple ice layers throughout the snowpack – indicating that February’s melting event was not a one-off occurrence this winter
Teams are working in Ny-Ålesund to study glacial and terrestrial microbial communities and their role in carbon and other elemental cycles during the dark, frozen, winter period – but future trips might not even be safe due to snowpack instability increasing risk of avalanches
The big reason for this phenomenon – known as ‘Arctic amplification’ – is that the relatively dark surface of the ocean absorbs more heat.
And the more ice is melted at the Arctic, the more heat is absorbed.
The team’s findings challenge the long-held assumption that the Arctic is ‘reliably frozen’ in winter – and they don’t think they are ‘an isolated occurrence’.
Winter warming events in Svalbard have been a recurring phenomenon in recent decades as a consequence of human-caused climate change
‘Winter warming in the Arctic has long reached melting point and is reshaping Arctic landscapes,’ they conclude.
‘Although the recent thaw event of February 2025 was not an isolated occurrence, witnessing it in real time served as a reminder of the accelerating pace of change, and made us wonder if we have been too cautious with our climate warnings.
‘These winter warming events are seen by many as anomalies, but this is the new Arctic.’
