Arctic Heatwave North Pole Temperatures Soar 20°C Above Normal, Pushing Ice to Melting Point
In a dramatic climate event, temperatures at the North Pole surged more than 20°C above average on Sunday, surpassing the melting threshold for ice.
According to European and U.S. weather models, regions north of Svalbard, Norway, had already experienced an 18°C temperature anomaly on Saturday, bringing actual readings dangerously close to 0°C. By Sunday, the anomaly had exceeded 20°C, marking one of the most extreme winter warming events recorded in the Arctic.
“This was a very extreme winter warming event,” said Mika Rantanen, a scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. “Probably not the most extreme ever observed, but still at the upper edge of what can happen in the Arctic.”
Scientists attribute this rapid warming to a combination of human-induced climate change and r...
