On June 20, 2020, a temperature of 38 °C or 100.4 °F was recorded in the Russian city of Verkhoyansk. During an extraordinary and prolonged Siberian heatwave, temperatures were measured at a meteorological observation station. Last year, the average temperature was 10 degrees Celsius above normal over Arctic Siberia. Temperatures of 38 degrees are unlikely in the Arctic, and last year saw devastating fires and massive sea ice loss. In the statement, the WMO pointed out that the temperature was “more suitable for the Mediterranean than the Arctic”. Heatwaves played a key role in 2020, which has been named globally as one of the three warmest years on record.
The WMO statement cited Professor Talas as saying that investigators from the organization are currently seeking to verify temperature readings of 54.4 °C recorded this year and last year in Death Valley, California, the world’s hottest. there is space. He said investigators would validate a newly reported European temperature record of 48.8 degrees Celsius in the Italian island of Sicily this summer.
WMO adds a new category
The Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions in the world, and it is warming more than twice the global average. Inspired by extreme temperatures and ongoing climate change, a WMO panel of experts added a new climate change category, “66.5°, the highest recorded temperature at or north of the Arctic Circle,” to its collection of international weather and climate extremes. . The polar regions are now represented in a new category. The WMO added temperature extremes for the Antarctic region in 2007.
Verkhoyansk, which is about 115 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, is in a region of Eastern Siberia with an extremely dry continental climate. This means that the region has very cold winters and summers.
According to the WMO statement, the investigation highlights rising temperatures for an important climate region of the world, said Professor Randall Cerveney, WMO reporter on climate and weather extremes. He said that through continuous monitoring and assessment of temperature extremes, the WMO can remain informed about changes in the polar Arctic.
Extremes are climate snapshots of current climate
The WMO said in the statement that the extremes of temperature, pressure, wind and other parameters presented to the WMO are ‘snapshots’ of our current climate. The WMO said it is likely that there will be more extremes in the Arctic region in the future.
Dr Phil Jones, a UK climatologist and committee member, said the record was clearly indicating a warming in Siberia.
Dr Blair Train of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said corroborating these types of records is critical to having a reliable basis for how the “most extreme extremes” of our climate are changing.
Detailed verification of extremes
A reanalysis of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast Interim was performed, along with analysis of other data and metadata. The Committee of Experts determined that the observations made at Verkhoyansk were consistent with those at nearby stations, and that the weather conditions corresponded to record temperatures.
The Committee requested that climate data be examined for other potential past Arctic extremes of comparable value as this was a new climate category for WMO collection.
According to historical research established from national records of Arctic countries, no Arctic location had a known temperature of 38 °C or higher.
The WMO Archive of Extremes lists the official minimum recorded temperature as -69.6 °C for areas north of or north of the Arctic Circle. The WMO said in a statement that this temperature was recorded in Greenland on 22 December 1991.
,