Climate crisis: Arctic temperatures ‘break records’, as ice melting season starts early

A heatwave is underway in the Arctic unusually early in the year, with temperatures reaching record highs for spring and kickstarting an earlier annual melting season, scientists have found.

An anomalous high pressure weather system over the North Pole has seen temperatures soar, with some parts of Siberia recording highs of over 20C.

This warm air over Russia has created a “highway” to the pole, transporting unseasonable warmth north into the Arctic. Meanwhile, colder air is moving south into Scandinavia and North America.

The current temperature spike follows a considerably warmer April than normal for the Arctic. In mid-April average temperatures reached highs of more than 0C, meaning overall some recordings were up to 20C above the long-term normal values for the area, according to data collected by Nasa and other agencies.

Speaking to The Independent about the record-breaking data, climate scientist Martin Stendel of the Danish Meteorological Institute said “the temperature anomalies in the high Arctic and large parts of Siberia are indeed quite extreme”.

“I could not find anything comparable for the high Arctic in a data set which goes back to 1958.”

“There is no similar event so early in the season” on record, he said.

Temperature anomaly analysis carried out by Severe Weather Europe, which provides centralised information gathering and sharing of climate and weather data from Europe, said over the weekend warm spots inside the Arctic circle were 12C above normal.

The average April global air temperature was +1.16C above the 1951-1980 climate baseline.

Persistent warmth continues - temperature anomalies projected in excess of 20°C over Siberia this week 🔥

[Map: https://t.co/3ktgI4YE1j] pic.twitter.com/otKVnYQRMh

— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) May 18, 2020

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