Greenland got off to a warm start in 2026 with its warmest January on record. The world's largest island not only set a record last month, but it also shattered its previous record for the first month of the year.
"Climate change is already clearly visible on Greenland," Jacob Hoyer, head of the National Centre for Climate Research at the Danish Meteorological Institute, told Reuters. "From the records we can see that it is warming four times faster than the mean temperature hike in the world."
The Danish Meteorological Institute released preliminary temperature reports indicating that the average temperature in January was up 0.2 degrees Celsius (32.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Nuuk, Greenland's capital and largest city. The historical average January temperature from 1991 through 2020 is -7.7 degrees Celsius (18.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Our planet is overheating, and it is warming the fastest in the Arctic. Last year was the third-warmest year on record for Earth. The annual global surface temperature was 1.17 degrees Celsius (2.11 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century average, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Last year capped an unprecedented three-year heat streak. Only the record-setting year of 2024 and the second-warmest year on record, 2023, were warmer than 2026. Our world's warmest 10 years on record have all happened since 2015.
"Arctic Amplification (AA) is the name given to the phenomenon of higher latitudes, the polar and Arctic regions, warming faster than lower latitudes, equatorial regions, due to climate change," said scientists with the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments research program. "AA has become one of the clearest signatures of climate change over the last few years due to the magnitude and acceleration of warming that has occurred since 1990."
Scientists now say the Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet.
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The Arctic's 2025 minimum sea ice extent tied as the 10th smallest on record, and its maximum set a new record low. New research shows Greenland's ice sheet could largely collapse by 3000 under ongoing pollution and rising temperatures, with feedbacks driving faster mass loss than models without them predict.
Warm winter weather has been making headlines in the U.S. lately as well. Record highs were set on Wednesday across several western cities. New records were set in California, including 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Newport Beach, 87 in Burbank, and 83 in San Diego. Billings, Montana, soared to 63 to set a record high, while Anchorage, Alaska, hit 45 to tie a record. Unusual warmth in the West has contributed to a snow drought impacting several states.
Many locations in the West are experiencing one of the top three warmest winters on record, including Portland, Billings, Reno, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Dallas. Over the past year, record warmth has far outpaced record cold across the country.
Since last February, there have been more than three times the number of record highs set compared to record lows, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
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