The
North Pole is over 36 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than average, a new
report found. In fact, the entire Arctic region, the report said, is
about 13 degrees warmer than usual.
At
the same time, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is at a record low
beating the all-time low seen in 2012. The analysis comes from Sean
Birkel, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute.
The
region is currently experiencing polar night during which the sun
hardly ever rises, so the area gets very cold and thick sheets of ice
are formed after the annual melting that occurs in September. However,
weather stations around the North Pole are recording temperatures warmer
than usual this year and this warm weather is hindering the formation
of ice sheets, which is occurring at a pace slower than usual.
“It’s
about 20C [36 degrees Fahrenheit] warmer than normal over most of the
Arctic Ocean, along with cold anomalies of about the same magnitude over
north-central Asia,” Jennifer Francis, an Arctic specialist from
Rutgers University, told the Washington Post.
“The
Arctic warmth is the result of a combination of record-low sea-ice
extent for this time of year, probably very thin ice, and plenty of
warm/moist air from lower latitudes being driven northward by a very
wavy jet stream,” she added. “The extreme behavior of the Arctic in 2016
seems to be in no hurry to quit.”
The
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that while the heat from
the deadly El NiƱo event has reduced to some extent, the heat due to
global warming still exists.
“Another
year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to
be beaten in 2016,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement Monday.
“In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6°C to 7°C above the
long-term average. Many other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia,
Alaska and northwest Canada were at least 3°C above average. We are used
to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this
is different.”
Scientists have expressed their concern over the warm temperatures on Twitter calling the spike an “extraordinary situation.”
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