The sweltering heat — equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit — was experienced on June 20, 2020, in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk.
The UN on Tuesday, December 14, officially recognised the 38 degrees Celsius recorded in Siberia last year as a new record high for the Arctic, sounding “alarm bells” over climate change.
Equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature was recoded on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, marking the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, the World Meteorological Organisation said.
It’s the first time the WMO has added record heat in the Arctic to its archive of extreme weather reports, and it comes amid an unprecedented wave of record temperature spikes worldwide, the UN agency said.
“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,” its chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
Verkhoyansk lies about 115 kilometres (70 miles) north of the Arctic Circle and temperatures have been measured there since 1885.
The temperature, according to the agency was “more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic”, was measured at a meteorological station during an exceptionally prolonged Siberian heat-wave.
The average temperatures across Arctic Siberia reached up to 10C above normal for much of the summer last year, it said, adding that this had fuelled fires and massive sea-ice loss.
The heat-wave also marked 2020 as one of the three warmest years on record globally.
Last year also saw a new record high of 18.3C for the Antarctic continent, Taalas said.
The WMO is still seeking to verify the 54.4C recorded in both 2020 and 2021 in the world’s hottest place, Death Valley in California.
experts are also working on validating a new European temperature record of 48.8C reported on the Italian island of Sicily this past summer.
The temperature, according to the agency was “more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic”, and was measured at a meteorological station during an exceptionally prolonged Siberian heat-wave.
The WMO’s archive “has never had so many ongoing simultaneous investigations”, Taalas said.
New category
The archive tracks the world’s highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hailstone, longest dry period, maximum gust of wind, longest lightning flash and weather-related mortalities.
Adding record Arctic heat was in recognition of the dramatic changes in the region.
Although all parts of the planet are warming, some areas are heating faster than others — and the Arctic’s pace of change is more than twice the global average.
“This investigation highlights the increasing temperatures occurring for a climatically important region of the world,” said agency weather expert Randall Cerveny.
The lowest temperature ever measured above the Arctic Circle was -69.6C (-93.9F), recorded on December 22, 1991 in Greenland.
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