In February 2025, exceptionally high air temperatures and rainfall over Svalbard (an archipelago in the Arctic) triggered widespread snowmelt and pooling of meltwater.

• Human-caused global warming is particularly amplified in the Arctic, causing the climate in the Arctic to warm more quickly than the rest of the Earth, in a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification.

Factors for Arctic Amplification

• Reduced Albedo: When temperature rise, reflective layer of ice and snow cover in Arctic is gradually replaced by darker ocean water and exposed land, both of which absorb more solar energy. 
  • This absorption accelerates warming, resulting in additional ice and snow loss – constituting a feedback loop. 
• Lapse rate feedback: In Arctic, warming from greenhouse gases is most pronounced near the surface while in the Tropics, extra heat spreads vertically due to convection.
• Water Vapour Triple Effect: Water vapour creates more cloud cover contributing to heating, release heat during condensation into water and acts as a greenhouse gas. 
• Atmospheric Heat transport: A larger increase in moisture in the tropics increases the rate of heat transport from the tropics to the Arctic.