Increase of thermokarst lakes area by two times for the Suola and Taatta River basins and a quarter times in the Tanda River basin is revealed based on the use of Landsat images in Central Yakutia for the period 2000-2019. The abrupt increase of lakes area is due to short-term periods of abnormal rise of soil temperature and deepening of active layer, which are caused by high values of snow water equivalent and total annual precipitation leading to increased soil moisture and decreased soil freezing intensity. The combination of these factors triggered the activation of thermokarst processes, which led to a sharp, in average more than 1.5 times, increase of thermokarst lakes area in 2007-2008.