Climate change: Highest temperature ever recorded in Arctic as UN sounds 'alarm bells' over crisis
WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said the record reading was the first of its kind in a new category of Arctic temperature monitoring.
Tuesday 14 December 2021 21:28, UK
The highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic has been confirmed by the United Nations, who sounded "alarm bells" about the planet's changing climate.
A temperature of 38C in Siberia during a heatwave in summer 2020 has been recognised as a record for the Arctic, experts said.
The temperature was recorded at a meteorological observation station in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, 115km (71 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, on 20 June 2020.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the temperature - more befitting the Mediterranean than the poles - came during conditions which averaged as much as 10C above normal for much of the summer over Arctic Siberia.
The heatwave fuelled devastating fires, drove massive sea loss and played a major role in 2020 being one of the three hottest years on record, the UN weather and climate body 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," said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas in a statement.
A meteorological station in Verkhoyansk has been observing temperatures since 1885, WMO said.
WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said the record reading was the first of its kind in a new category of Arctic temperature monitoring, so there was no previous record to compare it with.
However, she said temperatures as high as 38C have never been recorded before in the Arctic.
The agency says the Arctic is among the fastest-warming regions of the world and is heating up at rates twice those of the global average.
Last year also saw a new temperature record for the Antarctic continent of 18.3C at Argentina's Esperanza station, while the WMO is seeking to verify readings of 54.4C in 2020 and 2021 in Death Valley, California.
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The organisation is also seeking to validate a reported record for Europe in Sicily, which saw temperatures hit 48.8C this summer.
Prof Taalas added: "The WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes has never had so many ongoing simultaneous investigations."
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