UN report confirms Arctic heat record of 38ºC

The UN officially recognized the 38ºC recorded in Siberia in 2020, as a new high in the Arctic region, which “sets off alarm bells” about climate change.

This sweltering heat was recorded on June 20, 2020, in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, which constitutes the highest temperature reached above the Arctic Circle, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

It’s the first time the organization has included an Arctic heat record in its reports on extreme weather conditions, and it comes at a time of an unprecedented wave of temperature highs around the world, the U.N. agency said.

“This new record in the Arctic is part of a series of observations recorded in the WMO Archive of Extreme Weather and Climate Events, which sets off alarm bells about climate change,” WMO head Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The inclusion of a record in the Arctic is a confirmation of the dramatic changes in this region. Although all parts of the planet are warming, in some areas the process is faster than in others and in the Arctic the rate of this change is twice as fast as the global average.

“This research highlights rising temperatures in a very important region from a climate point of view for the world,” said agency expert Randall Cerveny. The mention of the Arctic implies that the two poles are now cited, after WMO added temperature highs recorded in the Antarctic region in 2007.

Because this is a new category in the report, the experts did not mention the previous temperature record for the region, but indicated that there is no previous record above 38ºC.

Verkhoyansk is 115 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and there are records of its temperatures since 1885. This record, which the agency says is “more typical of the Mediterranean than the Arctic,” was recorded by a weather station during an exceptionally prolonged heat wave in Siberia.

Average temperatures in the Siberian Arctic rose 10 degrees Celsius above normal for much of the summer last year, fueling fires and massive sea ice losses.

This heat wave also influenced 2020 to be designated as one of the three warmest years on record globally. Last year, a high of 18.3ºC was also recorded in Antarctica, Taalas said.

WMO is still verifying the 54.4ºC record set by thermometers in both 2020 and 2021 in Death Valley in California. Its experts are also checking another record of 48.8ºC in Sicily, which could be a new high for Europe. WMO “has never had so many simultaneous investigations,” Taalas said.

These files record the maximum and minimum temperature, the level of rainfall, the magnitude of hail, the most widespread periods of drought, wind gusts, lightning and mortality associated with climatic incidents.

Source: El Mostrador