Abstract: The Labrador Sea plays a pivotal role in the global climate circulation and climate as the (1) largest receiving and mixing basin, where the warm saline waters of tropical and subtropical origins blend with cold relatively-fresh waters of polar and subpolar origins; (2) primary source of newly ventilated intermediate-depth water masses and major carbon sink, performing the function of the ocean’s lung; (3) nucleus of the subpolar circulation gyre, acting as the ocean’s heart. Since the 1950s, this region has seen significant shifts in heat and freshwater contents, resulting in arguably the largest full-depth oceanic temperature, salinity, density and sea level changes ever recorded globally. The time-varying winter atmospheric forcing (1), Arctic meltwater inflow (2), and water-column memory of its past states (3), control and shape multiyear developments of the famous Labrador Sea convection, with its depth varying between 500 m and 2500 m. As recently shown in Intensification and shutdown of deep convection in the Labrador Sea were caused by changes in atmospheric and freshwater dynamics | Communications Earth & Environment, by separating these three dominant influences, we can now not only explain the interannual changes in winter convection, but even forecast it to a degree. Please skim through this article before the seminar as the time has come to test two important predictions made in it. No spoilers or thunder-stealers here (although the figure below gives some hints), just two questions we will answer: Has the massive Labrador Sea freshening, previously reported through 2023, sustained over two more years? Is deep convection still OFF in the Labrador Sea? Next, we will quantitatively assess the relative contributions of the six key factors influencing sea level in this challenging, full of questions, region – changes in winter surface cooling (1), enhanced summer surface warming, i.e., oceanic heat uptake (2), freshwater influx (3), winter convection depth (4), deep-water density (5), and water-column mass gain (6). These challenge will be addressed by co-analyzing satellite altimetry, profiling Argo float and ship-based hydrographic observations, gravimetric measurements, Arctic sea ice extent and volume data, atmospheric reanalyses fields. Among other results, we will see that the salinity changes switched from counterbalancing (1948–2015) to reinforcing (2015–2023) the effect of temperature changes on sea level variability, leading to unprecedently fast sea level rise between 2017 and 2025. --------