Trends in river discharge to the Arctic Ocean

There has been a modest increase in rain and snowfall over Arctic land areas since 1950, but measurements are not very complete. Change is hard to discern because there is large variability between years. Some of the rain and snow falling over land ends up as water in rivers. The total amount of water flowing out of the six largest rivers in the Eurasian Arctic each year has increased by about 10% since 1935. The amount flowing out of the five largest American Arctic rivers has also increased, although this has been measured only since 1970. The five wettest years since 1950 (in terms of rainfall, snowfall and river discharge) have all been in the past decade.