The Arctic Is Having A Scary Hot Flash

The Arctic Is Having A Scary Hot Flash

The Arctic was already having a rough autumn, but things took a sharp turn into crazy town this week, with temperatures across much of the Arctic ocean measuring some 20C above normal.

Image: Brennan Linsley/AP

A report out by The Washington Post details the astonishingly spring-like weather gripping our planet’s far north, at a time when the Arctic is supposed to be rapidly gaining sea ice as polar night descends. Instead, sea ice is lower for this time of year than it has been since satellite record-keeping began, ice growth is sluggish if not stalled and the air temperatures are, frankly, nuts.

Here’s what a few Arctic climate experts had to say on Twitter this week:

A combination of factors appears to be contributing to the hot flash, including elevated sea surface temperatures across the Arctic, and a kinky jet stream funnelling hot air northward, particularly over northern-central Canada, Alaska and the Chukchi Sea. At the same time, odd jet stream behaviour seems to have helped push an extremely cold air mass over Siberia.

Weather changes in a snap, and, as Julienne Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told Gizmodo recently, it’s too early to say whether this latest spate of meteorological weirdness portends another record low winter for Arctic sea ice. Perhaps the jet stream will settle down and weather patterns up north will get back to normal soon. Still, in a year that’s been breaking records left and right, it’s getting rather difficult to remember what normal is.

The Arctic Is Having A Scary Hot Flash
Temperature anomalies in October 2016. Image: NASA

Temperature anomalies in October 2016. Image: NASA

[The Washington Post]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.