Although the Trump administration has taken steps to scuttle or downplay other reports about climate change, this one struck a similar tone to those from past years.

A view over the Arctic, near Greenland, on Oct. 23.Patrick Pleul / dpa / Getty Images

The Arctic last season was the hottest it has been in the past 125 years. The extent of sea ice during its usual maximum in March was the lowest in 47 years of satellite recordkeeping. The North American tundra was more green with plant life than ever recorded.

These observations, shared Tuesday in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s annual Arctic report card, show how rapidly and profoundly the region is shifting as the planet warms.

"The Arctic continues to warm faster than the global average with the 10 years that comprise the last decade marking the 10 warmest years on record," said Steve Thur, NOAA`s acting chief scientist and its assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research.

As a result of this warming, "melting permafrost is altering ecosystems, turning over 200 watersheds in Arctic Alaska orange as iron and other elements are released into its rivers," Thur said. Researchers have observed higher acidity and a greater concentration of toxic metals in these rusting streams.

That is one of many consequences of climate change in the region that the report outlines. This is the 20th year that NOAA has released its Arctic report card, but the first during President Donald Trump`s second term.

The Trump administration has taken steps to scuttle or downplay other reports about climate change, including the National Climate Assessment and a database of billion-dollar climate disasters. Trump has also called climate change a "con job," and his administration is working to remove the Environmental Protection Agency`s ability to regulate the greenhouse gas pollution that causes it.

In a news conference Tuesday, Matthew Druckenmiller, one of the report`s authors and a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the team "did not receive any political interference with our results."

Outside scientists interviewed by NBC News said the report struck largely the same tone and message of concern as in past years, with a few minor exceptions.

"I honestly did not see much of a tone shift in comparison to previous Arctic report cards in years past, which was great to see," said Tom Di Liberto, a climate scientist and the media director at Climate Central. "The implications of their findings are the same as past Arctic report cards. The Arctic is the canary in the coal mine."

Di Liberto previously worked in NOAA`s communications office but was laid off in March, when the agency cut workers who were new to their roles. He pointed out that last year`s report called for a reduction of fossil fuel production in its headline, whereas the new one did not mention fossil fuels at all. Otherwise, he didn`t notice a major change.

NOAA unveiled the report, which describes how climate change is scrambling ecosystems and threatening livelihoods in the Arctic region, at the American Geophysical Union`s annual meeting in New Orleans. The event, one of the biggest science conferences of the year, is attended by thousands of scientists.

Marc Alessi, a climate scientist and fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the report card "does a great job of reporting the facts of what is literally happening on the ground in the Arctic."

"Anyone reading this can see that it is still screaming red alarm," he added.

The report`s authors highlight - in somewhat dry language - how proposed budget cuts to the network of science programs that take measurements in the Arctic, such as satellite programs that measure sea ice, could endanger the data collection that drives the report and decisions made based on it.

"Risks to funding and staffing, alongside aging infrastructure, may compound existing AON [Arctic Observing Network] gaps, jeopardizing long-term trend analyses and undermining decision-making," the report says.

It highlights in particular several satellites that are part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026. Their loss will limit measurements of sea ice, according to the report. It also notes that a dataset on tundra greenness won`t be updated because of funding cuts at NASA and that other climate datasets could be affected by federal budget cuts proposed for the 2026 fiscal year.

The Arctic is warming two to four times faster than other parts of the Earth because of a dynamic called Arctic amplification, which changes both ocean currents and how much sunlight is absorbed by the Earth`s surface near the pole.

"It`s this feedback where you lose sea ice, land ice, you start to absorb more sunlight and you start to warm much more rapidly," Alessi said.

Temperature records are organized by Arctic water year, so the most recent one ran from October 2024 through September 2025.