Northpole temperatures above freezing; while Europe bitterly cold

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

In December, a team of U.S. government scientists released a “report card” on the Arctic. Their top conclusion was pithy, comprehensive, and bleak. The Arctic, they said, “shows no sign of returning to [the] reliably frozen region of recent past decades.”

Now, it’s almost like the environment is trying to prove them right.

Though the sun hasn’t shone on the central Arctic for more than four months, the region is currently gripped by historic, record-breaking warmth. On Sunday, the temperature at the North Pole rose to about the melting point, and parts of the Arctic were more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal.

A handful of Arctic scientists spent the weekend on Twitter, trying to put the episode into context:

To understand how strange the recent Arctic weather is, it’s worth looking at a place called Cape Morris Jesup.

Cape Morris Jesup is a barren and uninhabited promontory above the Arctic Ocean. Just 450 miles from the North Pole, it is Greenland’s northernmost point. (In fittingly weird fashion, it’s named after Morris Ketchum Jesup, a terrifically mustachioed American banker who helped found the YMCA and the American Museum of Natural History, and helped fund the Arctic expeditions of Robert Peary.)

The sun hasn’t shone on Cape Morris Jesup since October 11. These should be among the coldest weeks of the year for the cape. But over the weekend, the weather station there recorded an air temperature of 43 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 50 degrees above normal for this time of year.

The weird warmth was not limited to that one spot. Station Nord, a scientific research station in Greenland nearly 200 miles to the southeast, recorded temperatures of about 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend.

These kinds of on-the-ground observations aren’t available for the North Pole. But by combing satellite observations and other temperature data, the top U.S. forecast model estimated that temperatures at the North Pole rose as high as 35 degrees Fahrenheit, according to The Washington Post.

This isn’t the only oddity in the Arctic right now. Every year, the Arctic Ocean goes through a two-part seasonal cycle. From late September to early March, its surface hardens into a huge solid mass, creating a vast ice sheet that stretches from Newfoundland to Siberia. Then, from late March to early September, much of that sea ice melts, and much less of the ocean surface is ice-covered.

At this time of year, sea ice should still be growing and expanding. But recent satellite observations have shown that two large gaps have somehow opened up in the ice. The first is in the Chukchi Sea, near Russia. The second, pictured below, is just north of Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland. The blue gaps are open water:

Arctic Sea Ice, From February 20 to February 25, 2018

More of the new article here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/its-54-degrees-warmer-than-normal-in-the-arctic/554303/

 

[ryanripley 86,575]

it's literally -6 celcius here, please end my suffering

[Purrrrrr 18,582]

15 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

it's literally -6 celcius here, please end my suffering

I just had to walk home a mile in it  I slipped on ice and life flashed before my eyes

[RAMROD 118,273]

And it’s always sunny in California

 

 

Let’s do weather exchange for a week

 

Joking aside, this is certainly signs of global warming. Maybe Europe is going to be North Pole and North Pole going to be habitable??

[rumours 45,521]

Polar bears are assembling their army right now to seek revenge on the human population. 

[KleinGa 18,177]

Global Warming is a Chinese HOAX 

[PunkTheFunk 125,734]

Global warming outsold

Wig

[Evan Peters 10,796]

22 minutes ago, Unbeweavable said:

I just had to walk home a mile in it  I slipped on ice and life flashed before my eyes

ptsd from walking from the bustop to my house in the midwest  

[ArtGagaPop 61,940]

38 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

it's literally -6 celcius here, please end my suffering

Its currently over -14 where i live, i don't even want to go outside right now 

[Bradlee Annett 148]

Also since December 26th the earth has been tilting back toward the sun, this is natural.

[ArtGagaPop 61,940]

Just now, Bradlee Annett said:

Also since Decmeber 26th the earth has been tilting back toward the sun, this is natural.

[Bradlee Annett 148]

Just now, ArtGagaPop said:

You're misconstruing what I mean.

[Poissonche 12,366]

41 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

it's literally -6 celcius here, please end my suffering

It's 1 celcius here, end MY suffering, that's WAY too warm. Like, help.

 

[The Child 18,997]

I’m in Paris and it’s freezing. We’re almost in March! 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

30 minutes ago, KleinGa said:

Global Warming is a Chinese HOAX 

hoax my ass, it's fvcking real