Arctic Regional Climate Centre Network

Temperature summary for the summer 2023

For the whole Arctic, strikingly large positive surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies dominated during May – September 2023. Preliminary resulting rank for June-July-August 2023 for the land Arctic is the 3rd consecutive in summer from 1950, though large regional and subseasonal variations and changes in anomaly sign continue to occur. In general, lesser scale of anomalies as well as some negative anomalies are observed for the Arctic regions with a greater share of the sea area – the Western Nordic and Chukchi Bering.

The figure below shows June – August 2023 surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies (reference period 1991-2020). The maps are produced by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute using ERA-5 reanalysis.

Precipitation summary for the summer 2023

During the summer 2023 drier conditions dominated over parts of Western Nordic, Eastern Siberia, Chukchi and Western Canada regions with wetter conditions over parts of Eastern Nordic, Western Siberia, Alaska and Greenland regions. Close to normal conditions were estimated for the Central Arctic.

The figure below shows June – August 2023 precipitation anomalies (reference period 1991-2020). The maps are produced by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute using ERA-5 reanalysis.

Sea ice summary for September 2023

The annual sea ice minimum occurred near 17th September 2023. The value close to 4.4 million square kilometers was the 8th lowest in the satellite era since 1979. Significant negative anomalies were most prominent in the areas of Eurasian and Canadian Arctic though some residual sea ice remained in both the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage until the time of freeze-up.