Due to a low-pressure storm in the northern Atlantic, temperatures once again soared in the Arctic recently. The recorded temperatures were 20 degrees warmer than the average, with the North Pole having the most unusual warm weather in the area.
The Washington Post reports that this was not the first time that this happened. During November and December of last year, a rise in temperature already happened. It also happened during 2014 and 2015.
Many things may be considered as the reason for these unusual changes. A big one would be climate change and the above-mentioned low-pressure system which may bring warm to the North Pole. But Kent Moore, an atmospheric physics expert from the University of Toronto said that storms are not really uncommon in the area. But what makes in unusual is the distance that the storms have traveled.
The New York Times reports that these elevated temperatures will result in the lowest ice coverage and even higher temperatures during the summer months. 35 degrees Fahrenheit was highest recorded temperature during November, which is 23 degrees higher than normal. What alarms scientists is that the sea ice is not only low during summer, but even during winter as well.
Although Moore said that these types of events won't last more than a few days, this is an indicator of the effects of climate change all over the world. "There's more and more evidence that the Arctic, especially, is warming quite dramatically and that we should expect to see more of these events," he said. "I think it's just more evidence that the climate is, in fact, changing."
Jeremy Mathis from the Arctic Research Program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that summer 2017 will be watched closely by their peers, to see just what permanent changes these rising temperatures may incur. Even though these types of things happen occasionally, there is no denying that climate change is making them happen more often than before.
