Extreme warm temperatures in North Pole this week

Arctic sea ice in the spring. Source: The Atlantic; Wasif Malik, Flickr

According to The Atlantic, this week the North Pole has seen a storm which will brought its temperature up to 2 degrees Celsius.

That’s as warm as it is today in Vancouver!

“…later this week, something extraordinary will happen: Air temperatures at the Earth’s most northernly region, in the middle of winter, will rise above freezing for only the second time on record.

“On Wednesday, the same storm system that last week spun up deadly tornadoes in the American southeast will burst into the far north, centering over Iceland. It will bring strong winds and pressure as low as is typically seen during hurricanes.

“That low pressure will suck air out of the planet’s middle latitudes and send it rushing to the Arctic. And so on Wednesday, the North Pole will likely see temperatures of about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius. That’s 50 degrees hotter than average: It’s usually 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero there at this time of year.

“Winter temperatures have only snuck above freezing at the North Pole once before. Eric Holthaus, Slate’s meterologist, could not find an Arctic expert who had witnessed above-freezing temperatures at the pole between December and early April.”

This is not good news for Arctic ice, which has already been melting at abnormally fast rates. (Not to mention, it’s not a very nice Christmas-time phenomenon: where will Santa Claus live if his home melts away?)

Read more from the article here.