A freak warming around the North Pole could be due to man-made global warming, scientists suggest
| Updated: Feb 27, 2018, 11:49 IST
A freak warming around the North Pole is sending a blast of Arctic cold over Europe and scientists are saying that this could be a sign of "wacky" weather as caused by man-made global warming. On the northern tip of Greenland, the Cape Morris Jesup meteorological site has had a record-smashing 61 hours of temperatures above freezing so far in 2018, linked to a rare retreat of sea ice in the Arctic winter darkness.
"It's never been this extreme," said Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). The warmth was coming both, from the Atlantic and through the Bering Strait, driving and cold air south. Around the entire Arctic region, temperatures are now about 20C (36F) above normal, at minus eight degrees Celsius (17.6F), according to DMI calculations. To the south, a rare snow storm hit Rome on Monday and some Brussels mayors planned to detain homeless overnight if they refused shelter with temperatures set to fall as low as minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) in the coming week.
The "warm Arctic, cold continent" (WAC#C) pattern is sometimes dubbed "wacc-y" or "wacky" among climate scientists. "Wacky weather continues with scary strength and persistence," tweeted Professor Lars Kaleschke, a professor at the University of Hamburg. "The question is whether this weather will happen more often. This is just one event so it's hard to make a causal relationship," he told a leading news agency.
"It's never been this extreme," said Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). The warmth was coming both, from the Atlantic and through the Bering Strait, driving and cold air south. Around the entire Arctic region, temperatures are now about 20C (36F) above normal, at minus eight degrees Celsius (17.6F), according to DMI calculations. To the south, a rare snow storm hit Rome on Monday and some Brussels mayors planned to detain homeless overnight if they refused shelter with temperatures set to fall as low as minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) in the coming week.
The "warm Arctic, cold continent" (WAC#C) pattern is sometimes dubbed "wacc-y" or "wacky" among climate scientists. "Wacky weather continues with scary strength and persistence," tweeted Professor Lars Kaleschke, a professor at the University of Hamburg. "The question is whether this weather will happen more often. This is just one event so it's hard to make a causal relationship," he told a leading news agency.