UN confirms hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic (100 F)
Source: Live Science
UN confirms hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic
Temperatures hit 100 F in this Siberian town.
By Ben Turner published about 6 hours ago
The highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic has been officially confirmed by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sounding ''alarm bells'' about climate change.
The temperature, a ''Mediterranean'' 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) — which was recorded in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk in June 2020 — was measured at the peak of an extended heat wave. In fact, temperatures across the region that summer averaged as much as 18 F (10 C) above normal, the WMO said in a statement.
''This new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about our changing climate,'' Petteri Taalas, the WMO's secretary-general, said in the statement.
The WMO said the extreme heat was "more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic" and that the heat wave was a key factor in ''fueling devastating fires, driving massive sea ice loss and playing a major role in 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record.''
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Arctic temperature soared to an unprecedented 100 degrees in 2020, scientists confirm
The record prompted the World Meteorological Organization to create a new category of extremes — highest temperature at or north of the Arctic Circle
The map shows land surface temperature anomalies from March 19 to June 20, 2020. Red colors show areas that were hotter than average for the same period from 2003-2018; blues were colder than average. Data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite. (Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory)
By Kasha Patel
Today at 9:56 a.m. EST|Updated today at 10:22 a.m. EST
On June 20, 2020, the temperature in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soared to a searing 100.4 degrees — more befitting of the Mediterranean than far-east Russia. Scientists with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have now confirmed the measurement is the Arctic’s hottest temperature on record.
“This new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about our changing climate,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas in a statement.
Last year, 2020, was a record-breaking year across the globe, ranking in the top three warmest years on record. The Arctic, which has been warming more than twice as fast as the global average, experienced an abnormally hot January-to-June time period that year. During those six months, monthly temperatures in Siberia were as high as 18.5 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) above average.
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By Kasha Patel
Kasha Patel edits and reports on the weather, climate and environment for the Capital Weather Gang at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she covered Earth sciences and satellite research for NASA. Twitter https://twitter.com/KashaPatel