High Arctic temperatures break records

In late February 2018, weather services in the United States and Scandinavian countries tracked a severe warming event in the Arctic, with temperatures peaking on February 25. Although there are no permanent sensors directly at the North Pole, researchers reported that temperatures in the area reached zero degrees Celsius during the month, a level unprecedented for that time of year.

At Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost meteorological station in the world located at the northern tip of Greenland, temperatures in early 2018 were higher than those in London or Zurich. The station registered temperatures above freezing for a total of 61 hours in 2018. This surpassed the previous record of 16 hours set in 2011. A physicist at the California-based climate science non-profit Berkeley Earth noted these figures, while a researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute observed that while warm air has entered the Arctic in recent winters, previous events were not as large in magnitude.

The high temperatures have also affected regional ice. Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center indicated that ice coverage in the Arctic fell to levels typically not seen until May or June. This Arctic warming coincided with extreme winter weather across Europe, where freezing winds brought significant temperature drops. The cold front was referred to in different countries as the “Beast of the East,” the “snow cannon,” or the “Siberian Bear,” with temperatures dipping to minus 20 degrees Celsius in Vilnius, Lithuania, minus 12 degrees Celsius in Berlin, and minus 24 degrees Celsius in Moscow.