Scientists sound alarm after new record

Climate & Environment

Heat record in the Arctic: Greenland 15 degrees warmer than normal 

Agneta Elmegård

Published 2026-01-29 23:46

If you

 

thought there was a mental ice age around Greenland after Trump's repeated threats, you are wrong. There is a heat wave.

During the period from December 2025 to January 2026, parts of the Arctic have experienced extremely high temperature anomalies.

Now scientists are warning that parts of the Arctic region have entered a new era.

At the Kitsissorsuit 

weather station in western 

Greenland

, observational data shows that January 2026 was on average about 15.5 degrees warmer than the normal period, with several individual days that were 20 degrees above normal for the season.

Normal January temperature at Kitsissorsuit is around −19 degrees, while the monthly average this year was close to −4 degrees.

Similar patterns have been observed in 

Iceland,

 where unusually mild air from the Atlantic led to temperatures well above the seasonal norm.

The Solheimajökull glacier in Iceland has retreated 1 kilometer in the last 20 years. Photo: Agneta Elmegård

According to World Weather Attribution and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, both Iceland and parts of Greenland are among the regions in the world where winter warming is now occurring most rapidly, in line with the so-called “Arctic amplification” that researchers have warned about.

Researchers: “The Arctic has entered a new era”

The study warning of a new era of extreme weather in the Arctic is published in the scientific journal 

Science Advances

 and is led by researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute together with an international team that includes the University of Sheffield and the University of Helsinki. The team, which has analyzed more than 70 years of data, writes that “the Arctic has entered a new era of extreme weather, where climate change is making extreme events and temperature swings more frequent.” They also warn that this is affecting both ecosystems and communities in the Arctic.

– Our research shows that the frequency of extreme weather events has increased sharply in the Arctic. In about a third of the Arctic land area, these events have only recently begun to occur, which shows that the Arctic is entering a new era of extreme weather conditions with likely serious consequences for the ecosystems there, says Gareth Phoenix, professor at the University of Sheffield, to 

Science Alert.

Arctic regions such as the Vestmannaeyjarna off Iceland are places that are increasingly experiencing ice- and snow-free periods, where there should instead be much colder weather. Photo: Agneta Elmegård