UAF scientists help keep record of global and Arctic climate

For the fourth consecutive year, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Rick Thoman served as an editor of an annual federal report summarizing the world’s climate.

“State of the Climate in 2023” describes global environmental conditions and highlights notable climate records. For example, Earth’s greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat and global sea level were the highest on record in 2023. 

Across the Arctic — the chapter of the report Thoman was responsible for — summer 2023 was the warmest ever. The warmth made for an increasingly navigable Arctic, where northern marine routes saw record numbers of ships and amounts of transported cargo. 

The hot Arctic summer had other far-reaching impacts, including record wildfires in Canada that displaced thousands of residents and thinning glaciers that triggered massive floods, damaging Juneau and other communities. Glaciers across the Arctic are melting; all 25 monitored Arctic glaciers included in the report were smaller in 2023 than in past years.

Though “State of the Climate” outlines conditions from the previous year, detailing records that for some are “old news,” the report, issued annually since 1996, provides a critical and long-running record of global climate that is important for science and tracking trends.

 “It provides peer-reviewed authoritative documentation of Arctic and global climate, which is important because it has been produced every year for decades,” explained Thoman, who is a climate specialist at the UAF Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.  

Several other UAF scientists authored sections within the Arctic chapter. 

• Tom Ballenger was a co-author on the atmosphere section.
• Ballenger was lead author and John Walsh, Uma Bhatt and Thoman were co-authors on the temperature section. 
• Walsh, Ballenger and Rick Lader were co-authors on the precipitation section.
• Gabe Wolken was a co-author on the glaciers and ice caps outside Greenland section.
• Bhatt, Chris Waigl and Don Walker were co-authors on the tundra greenness section.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists and collaborators compile the report, which was published Aug. 22 by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. To learn more about climate reports, review the Quick Guide to Climate Reports.

CONTACT: Rick Thoman, rthoman@alaska.edu, 907-474-2415

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