NOAA Arctic Report Card 2025 : Terrestrial Snow Cover Terrestrial Snow Cover

In this essay, multiple data sets derived from satellite observations and snowpack models driven by historical weather conditions are used to assess Arctic seasonal snow cover (see Methods and data). Collectively, this approach provides a reliable picture of Arctic snow cover variability over the last five to six decades. We characterize snow conditions across the Arctic land surface using three quantities: how much total land area is covered by snow (snow cover extent – SCE), how much of the year snow covers the land surface (snow cover duration – SCD), and how much total water is stored in solid form by the snowpack (snow water equivalent – SWE; the product of snow depth and density). We examine each of these quantities in turn for the 2024/25 Arctic snow season (August 2024 to July 2025).