Arctic Regional Climate Centre Network

The fifth Arctic Climate Forum (ACF-5) was held on 27-28 May 2020 as a virtual meeting led by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Roshydromet. It brought together nearly 90 participants from 12 countries representing meteorological services, shipping industry, indigenous people, and other key partners and decision makers.

ACF-5 presented key climate information on the state of Arctic climate (temperature, precipitation and sea-ice) during Winter/Spring 2019/20 and the Arctic Summer 2020 outlook. Above normal temperatures are expected to continue across the majority of the Arctic for June–August 2020, which provides information for decision-makers about a rapidly changing region, which is warming more than twice the global mean.

View the full WMO press release.

The next Arctic Climate Forum, ACF-5, will take place May 27-28. View more at ACF Spring 2020.

The fourth session of the Arctic Climate Forum was held via video-conference on 30 October 2019, presenting a summary of the summer 2019 and forecast for winter 2019-20. The outlook indicates that the average surface air temperatures are likely to be above normal for the entire Arctic for November, December 2019 and January 2020. The fall freeze-up of sea ice is expected to be earlier than normal in the Barents Sea, and normal for Hudson Bay. For all other regions the fall sea-ice freeze-up is expected to be later than normal.

Read the full WMO press release.

WMO has a new flagship product, Global Seasonal Climate Update. Read more about it under Long-range forecasting.

The third session of the Pan-Arctic Climate Outlook Forum (PARCOF) was held on 8-9 May 2019 Rovaniemi, Finland, to review the climate conditions during the previous winter season, and to provide an outlook for the forthcoming summer season. Average surface air temperatures are expected to be above normal across the majority of the Arctic regions between June and August 2019. Below to near normal sea ice conditions are expected for the majority of the Arctic, with the exception of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. The forecast summer conditions follow winter months in which the average surface air temperature was above normal for most of the Arctic domain. Eastern Siberia experienced its second warmest November-December-January on record. During February, March and April, Arctic temperatures were above normal, with the exception of the eastern Canadian Arctic where temperatures were below normal. Above normal temperatures are expected to continue across the majority of the Arctic regions between June and August 2019.

Read the full WMO press release.