Record high temperatures in Alaska, excess summer ice melting in Greenland and below average snowfall across the Arctic, were some of the issues raised in the Annual Arctic Report.
Compiled by 63 scientists in 13 countries and released by the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco the report said changes in Arctic warming were having broader effects beyond the Arctic.
Cam Walker is Campaigns Co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth. He said climate change in the Arctic acted as a warning system for potential global changes to come.
"The scary thing is that it's consistent with everything we've learned before and that is that warming is happening and this warming has a knock on effect into other regions. And in many ways the Arctic is the canary in the cage because it's warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet."
The report spanned from October 2013 to September 2014 and noted that along with unusually warm air in Alaska and northern Europe, extreme cold temperatures were recorded in eastern North America and central Russia.
Walker said also of concern was summer melt in and around Greenland, which was the most excessive they have seen since the 1960s.
"That's particularly an issue in the Greenland area because there is such a large ice shelf. Now if the Greenland ice mass goes then that's going to have a very significant impact on sea levels across the planet."
Image credit: NOAA Climate.gov
While the melting along the Greenland ice sheet was above average, the report said this didn't affect the the total mass of the ice sheet, which remained unchanged during the same period.
There was a note of optimism with small improvements in the thickening of ice in the Arctic but the report said natural random variability also needed to be taken into account.
Walker said this was a factor that made studying changes in the environment an inexact science.
"It's a real issue for Arctic scientists or climate scientists in general to weed out if you like, or to pull out the background noise of natural variation."
He said Australia's bushfire season was an example of what a challenge this was.
"Here in Australia we have that natural variation. We have good bushfire seasons and terrible bushfire seasons. How do we then filter out the background noise of natural variation and look at the deeper implications of human global warming?"
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