It remains freezing cold outside the Arctic: 25 degrees warmer than normal | science and planet

“There is no snow now, but there is rain north of Spitsbergen,” says Wetherman Water van Bernebeek. “They are dealing with somewhat the same type of arctic air as we had last week. A strong stream of air pulled in almost a straight line from southern Europe over Norway and the Arctic Ocean to turn the weather about 6000 km away.”

It often does not happen that a stream of warm air travels a long distance to the north. “Usually there is an obstacle along the way that stops the flow,” says van Bernebeek. “It was not there now.”

The weather scientist adds that this phenomenon cannot be attributed to climate change. We don’t see it often, but it used to be. In the Arctic, the temperature can fluctuate by up to 80 degrees, so these kinds of effects are noticeable.”

Van Bernebeek remains concerned about the current polar temperature. “The fact that the temperature is fluctuating may not have anything to do with global warming, but the fact that the temperature is now well above freezing is concerning.” It shows that the weather is generally getting warmer in the Arctic, and that where the winter temperature has been above -10, the temperature can suddenly rise above freezing. “So those few degrees all of a sudden make a big difference.”

Van Bernebeek wants to differentiate between high temperatures. “Of course it is not as warm everywhere in the Arctic. Where it is barely cold north of Spitsbergen now, it is very cold by 20 degrees in Greenland.” However, this does not remove the concerns. “We have now suddenly reached that tipping point where it could simply melt in the Arctic winter. It did rain a few times in the winter last year, and now again. We can no longer deny the slowly warming, which is disastrous in regions Like the North Pole.

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