[MB, interviewer] The Arctic Report Card presents 20 Years of Arctic Change, an Interview Series, featuring Dr. James Overland.

I'm James Overland. I work for NOAA Research 
in Alaska and I am out of Seattle and I am mostly looking at large-scale Arctic climate variability --but also how that impacts fisheries in Alaska.
--[MB] Could you tell us about the first time --you went to the Arctic?
--[Jim] I was fortunate to get a summer job where they said "do you want to go spend the summer on the ice island?" Ice islands are calve glaciers that are about 7 miles across and you need snow to make the runway so --you are stuck there for the summer.
--[MB] How has the science and maybe the urgency around the changing Arctic shifted since the early 2000s?

By the 2000s we were pretty sure that the Arctic temperature changes and everything we were 
seeing in ice and ecosystems all pointing that change was underway. And 10 years ago we flew with the NOAA airplane where we had flown 20 years before and 20 years before it was regular ice, but 10 years ago it was all thin and broken up so it was really a monumental difference then.

[MB] How is the Arctic connected to the world's weather patterns and why should people in non-Arctic regions care about what is happening up north?

The weather influence ends up being fairly complex. You have the ice going away so you've got more heat going from the ocean up to the atmosphere, but the atmosphere is very chaotic. So 
to get an influence on the lower 48 where people live, you need the wavy jet stream that has to be strong and in the right place. The overall atmosphere is relaying that its colder to the north and warmer to the south. That difference drives the winds from the west to the east, but when that temperature difference gets strong enough it breaks down into a wavy structure rather 
than straight west to east. So when you have that wavy structure you're taking warm air to the north and bringing cold air to the south. And it tends to occur in certain areas, but not all the time. Certainly eastern US and eastern Asia are the places that we can have these one to two week cold air outbreaks when the wavy jet stream is lined up bringing cold air out of Canada. And this year was a good example where they had to hold the presidential inauguration indoors because it was cold and snowy and they had snow down in the southeast and in New Orleans. When people aren't normally set up for all that cold weather so you know it has a big impact on --shipping, and even people dying.
--[MB] How has the Arctic Report Card helped track this change over time and why has it been so important to keep it going year after year?

The beginning of the Report Card is a good story. I got several people together saying we ought to do an update every year on changes and it started out looking at large-scale changes, but over the years that changed a bit where we look at the regional changes and extremes. It ends up being very useful and scientific and
authoritative which was the other goal we had

when we started out.

Thanks for watching this interview as a part of 20 years of Arctic Change, a special series

from the Arctic Report Card. We hope it gave you new insight into both the Arctic Report Card and the vital connections between the Arctic and the rest of the world.

The 2025 Arctic Report Card will
be released this December. Stay tuned for more updates and interviews and learn more at arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/.