Attributing climate and weather extremes to Northern Hemisphere sea ice and terrestrial snow: progress, challenges and ways forward

• Published in: NPJ climate and atmospheric science Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 166 - 22
• Main Authors: Ye, Kunhui, Cohen, Judah, Chen, Hans W., Zhang, Shiyue, Luo, Dehai, Hamouda, Mostafa Essam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/106/125; 704/106/35/823; 704/106/694; Artificial intelligence; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Climate prediction; Climate system; Climatology; Cryosphere; Drought; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Extreme weather; Heat waves; Ice; International cooperation; Linkages; Northern Hemisphere; Review; Sea ice; Snow; Uncertainty; Weather; Wildfires; Northern Hemisphere; Climate change; Cryospheric science; Atmospheric dynamics
• ISSN: 2397-3722; 2397-3722
• DOI: 10.1038/s41612-025-01012-0

Sea ice and snow are crucial components of the cryosphere and the climate system. Both sea ice and spring snow in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) have been decreasing at an alarming rate in a changing climate. Changes in NH sea ice and snow have been linked with a variety of climate and weather extremes including cold spells, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires. Understanding of these linkages will benefit the predictions of climate and weather extremes. However, existing work on this has been largely fragmented and is subject to large uncertainties in physical pathways and methodologies. This has prevented further substantial progress in attributing climate and weather extremes to sea ice and snow change, and will potentially risk the loss of a critical window for effective climate change mitigation. In this review, we synthesize the current progress in attributing climate and weather extremes to sea ice and snow change by evaluating the observed linkages, their physical pathways and uncertainties in these pathways, and suggesting ways forward for future research efforts. By adopting the same framework for both sea ice and snow, we highlight their combined influence and the cryospheric feedback to the climate system. We suggest that future research will benefit from improving observational networks, addressing the causality and complexity of the linkages using multiple lines of evidence, adopting large-ensemble approaches and artificial intelligence, achieving synergy between different methodologies/disciplines, widening the context, and coordinated international collaboration.