diff --git a/doc/installing.rst b/doc/installing.rst
index e9fd9885b31..b6ec2bd841f 100644
--- a/doc/installing.rst
+++ b/doc/installing.rst
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Installation
 Required dependencies
 ---------------------
 
-- Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, or 3.6
+- Python 2.7 [1]_, 3.4, 3.5, or 3.6
 - `numpy <http://www.numpy.org/>`__ (1.11 or later)
 - `pandas <http://pandas.pydata.org/>`__ (0.18.0 or later)
 
@@ -96,3 +96,13 @@ To run these benchmark tests in a local machine, first install
 
 and run
 ``asv run  # this will install some conda environments in ./.asv/envs``
+
+.. [1] Xarray plans to drop support for python 2.7 at the end of 2018. This
+   means that new releases of xarray published after this date will only be
+   installable on python 3+ environments, but older versions of xarray will
+   always be available to python 2.7 users. For more information see the
+   following references:
+
+      - `Xarray Github issue discussing dropping Python 2 <https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1829>`__
+      - `Python 3 Statement <http://www.python3statement.org/>`__
+      - `Tips on porting to Python 3 <https://docs.python.org/3/howto/pyporting.html>`__
diff --git a/doc/whats-new.rst b/doc/whats-new.rst
index a1fee8d5961..153d2c32959 100644
--- a/doc/whats-new.rst
+++ b/doc/whats-new.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,18 @@ What's New
     import xarray as xr
     np.random.seed(123456)
 
+.. warning::
+
+    Xarray plans to drop support for python 2.7 at the end of 2018. This
+    means that new releases of xarray published after this date will only be
+    installable on python 3+ environments, but older versions of xarray will
+    always be available to python 2.7 users. For more information see the
+    following references
+
+  - `Xarray Github issue discussing dropping Python 2 <https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1829>`__
+  - `Python 3 Statement <http://www.python3statement.org/>`__
+  - `Tips on porting to Python 3 <https://docs.python.org/3/howto/pyporting.html>`__
+
 .. _whats-new.0.10.1:
 
 v0.10.1 (unreleased)