The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature.
Climate change intensified the seven days of heat in May in Iceland by about three degrees Celsius, the WWA said.
And in Greenland, "the melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heat wave," one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, told reporters.
"Without climate change this would have been impossible," said Otto, an associate professor in climate science at the Imperial College London.
The data from the May 15-21, 2025 heatwave was compared to the average ice melt for the same week during the period 1980-2010.
In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on May 15, unprecedented for that time of year on the subarctic island.
"Temperatures over Iceland as observed this May are record-breaking, more than 13 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average May daily maximum temperatures," the WWA said.
In May, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations registered record temperatures, according to the country's meteorological institute.
In eastern Greenland, the hottest day during the heatwave was about 3.9C warmer compared to the preindustrial climate, the WWA said.
"While a heatwave that is around 20 degrees Celsius might not sound like an extreme event from the experience of most people around the world, it is a really big deal for this part of the world," Otto said.
"It affects the whole world massively," she said.
More intense heatwaves have hit the two territories in recent decades, but they have occurred later in the summer -- in late July and early August in 2008, and in August 2004.
- Damage to infrastructure -
Continued burning of oil, gas, and coal will accelerate the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, while in Iceland, similar heatwaves will become a further 2C more intense if warming reaches 2.6C, which is expected by 2100, the WWA warned.
For Greenland's indigenous communities, the warmer temperatures and melting ice affect their ability to hunt on the ice, posing a threat to their livelihood and traditional way of life.
The changes also affect infrastructure in the two countries.
"In Greenland and Iceland, infrastructure is built for cold weather, meaning during a heatwave ice melt can lead to flooding and damage roads and infrastructure," the WWA said.
In Greenland, the higher temperatures coupled with heavy rainfall can have numerous consequences on nature.
In 2022, higher temperatures caused the permafrost to thaw, releasing iron and other metals into numerous Arctic lakes, it said.
Health and hygiene can also be affected, as rural Greenlandic households often lack sewage systems.
May 2025 second warmest on record: EU climate monitor
Paris (AFP) June 11, 2025 -
Global heating persisted as the new norm, with last month the second warmest May on record on land and in the oceans, according to the European Union's climate monitoring service.
The planet's average surface temperature dipped below the threshold of 1.5 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, just shy of the record for May set last year, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The same held for the world's oceans. With a surface temperature of 20.79C, last month was second only to May 2024, with some unprecedented warmth regionally.
"Large areas in the northeast North Atlantic, which experienced a marine heatwave, had record surface temperatures for the month," Copernicus reported. "Most of the Mediterranean Sea was much warmer than average."
The increasingly dire state of the oceans is front-and-centre at the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), which kicked off Monday in Nice, France.
Ocean heatwaves are driving marine species to migrate, decimating coral reefs, damaging ecosystems, and reducing the ability of ocean layers to mix, which hinders the distribution of nutrients.
Covering 70 percent of the globe's surface, oceans redistribute heat and play a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate.
Surface water warmed by climate change drive increasingly powerful storms, causing new levels of destruction and flooding in their wake.
Some parts of Europe, meanwhile, "experienced their lowest levels of precipitation and soil moisture since at least 1979", Copernicus noted.
Britain has been in the grips of its most intense drought in decades, with Denmark and the Netherlands also suffering from a lack of rain.
Persistent dry conditions have also led to the lowest spring river flow across Europe since records began in 1992.
- 'Brief respite' -
Boreal forests across Canada, northern Europe and Siberia saw the second warmest spring on record, fuelling forest fires in Canada where two provinces declared a state of emergency.
Ten days into June, more than 220 actives fires burned across the country, half of them classified as out-of-control.
Earth's surface last month was 1.4C above the preindustrial benchmark, defined as the average temperature from 1850 to 1900, before the massive use of fossil fuels caused the climate to dramatically warm.
"May 2025 interrupts an unprecedentedly long sequence of months above 1.5C," noted Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
All but one of the previous 22 months crossed this critical threshold, which marks the 2015 Paris Agreement's most ambitious target for capping global warming.
"This may offer a brief respite for the planet, but we expect the 1.5C threshold to be exceeded again in the near future due to the continued warming of the climate system," he added.
Over the 12-month period June 2024 to May 2025, warming averaged 1.57C compared to the 1850-1900 benchmark.
The Paris treaty target, however, is pegged to a 20-year average, in order to account for the influence of natural variability.
The UN's climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, has said there is a 50 percent chance of breaching the 1.5C barrier in line with these criteria between 2030 and 2035.
Using this method of calculation, the world today has warmed by at least 1.3C.
The UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), meanwhile, has said there is a 70 percent chance the five-year period 2025-2029, on average, will exceed the 1.5C limit.
Scientists stress the importance of limiting global warming as soon and as much as possible because every fraction of a degree increases the risks of more deadly and destructive impacts, on land and in the sea.
Limiting warming to 1.5C rather than 2C would significantly reduce the most catastrophic consequences, the IPCC concluded in a major report in 2018.
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