What’s perhaps even more impressive is that this relative warmth has persisted since December, with average temperatures in western Siberia 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — doubling the previous departure from average in 2016.

The average heat across Russia from January to May is so remarkable that it matches what’s projected to be normal by the year 2100 if current trends in heat-trapping carbon emissions continue. In the image below, the data point for 2020 is almost off the charts, and matches what climate models expect to be typical many decades from now.

Temperature hits 100 F degrees in Arctic Russian town Associated Press  A Siberian town with the world’s widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires. The temperature in Verkhoyansk hit 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 F) on Saturday, according to Pogoda i Klimat, a website that compiles Russian meteorological data. The town is located above the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic, about 4,660 kilometers (2,900 miles) northeast of Moscow. The town of about 1,300 residents is recognized by the Guinness World Records for the most extreme temperature range, with a low of minus-68 degrees C (minus-90 F) and a previous high of 37.2 C (98.96 F.) Much of Siberia this year has had unseasonably high temperatures, leading to sizable wildfires. In the Sakha Republic, more than 275,000 hectares (680,000 acres) are burning, according to Avialesokhrana, the government agency that monitors forest fires.

‘This Scares Me,’ Says Bill McKibben as Arctic Hits 100.4°F—Hottest Temperature on Record

“100°F about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle today in Siberia. That’s a first in all of recorded history. We are in a climate emergency.”byJake Johnson, staff writer  97 Comments

A graphic shows record heat in the Arctic Circle on Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Image: Screengrab\@ScottDuncanWX)

A small Siberian town north of the Arctic Circle reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, a figure that—if verified—would be the highest temperature reading in the region since record-keeping began in 1885.

“This scares me, I have to say,” environmentalist and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben tweeted in response to news of the record-breaking reading in Verkhoyansk, where the average high temperature in June is 68°F.

“Siberian town tops 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. This scares me, I have to say.”
—Bill McKibben, 350.org

Washington Post climate reporter Andrew Freedman noted Sunday that if the reading is confirmed, it “would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed, and the highest temperature on record in the Arctic, a region that is warming at more than twice the rate of the rest of the globe.”

“On Sunday, the same location recorded a high temperature of 95.3 degrees (35.2 Celsius), showing the Saturday reading was not an anomaly,” the newspaper reported. “While some questions remain about the accuracy of the Verkhoyansk temperature measurement, data from a Saturday weather balloon launch at that location supports the 100-degree reading. Temperatures in the lower atmosphere, at about 5,000 feet, also were unusually warm at 70 degrees (21 Celsius), a sign of extreme heat at the surface.”

The World Meteorological Organization said Sunday that is “preliminarily accepting the observation as a new extreme” as it conducts a more thorough review of the Verkhoyansk reading.

“100°F about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle today in Siberia. That’s a first in all of recorded history,” tweeted meteorologist Eric Holthaus. “We are in a climate emergency.”

The reading comes as Siberia is in the midst of a prolonged heatwave that has alarmed climate scientists and activists.

“Been watching the Siberian heatwave for months and it’s beyond terrifying—already suffering what was expected in 2100 in a worst case scenario,” said climate activist and conservationist Charlie Gardner.

As the Guardian reported last week, “the freak temperatures [in Siberia] have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill, and a plague of tree-eating moths.”

“Russian towns in the Arctic Circle have recorded extraordinary temperatures, with Nizhnyaya Pesha hitting 30°C on 9 June and Khatanga, which usually has daytime temperatures of around 0°C at this time of year, hitting 25°C on 22 May. The previous record was 12°C.”Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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Arctic records its hottest temperature ever

BY JEFF BERARDELLI, JUNE 22, 2020 / 7:06 AM / CBS NEWS

Alarming heat scorched Siberia on Saturday as the small town of Verkhoyansk (67.5°N latitude) reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees above the normal high temperature. If verified, this is likely the hottest temperature ever recorded in Siberia and also the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle, which begins at 66.5°N.

The town is 3,000 miles east of Moscow and further north than even Fairbanks, Alaska. On Friday, the city of Caribou, Maine, tied an all-time record at 96 degrees Fahrenheit and was once again well into the 90s on Saturday. To put this into perspective, the city of Miami, Florida, has only reached 100 degrees one time since the city began keeping temperature records in 1896.

Verkhoyansk is typically one of the coldest spots on Earth. This past November, the area reached nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, one of the first spots to drop that low in the winter of 2019-2020. The scene below is certainly more characteristic of eastern Siberia.

Reaching 100 degrees in or near the Arctic is almost unheard of. Although the reading is questionable, back in 1915 the town of Fort Yukon, Alaska, not quite as far north as Verkhoyansk, is reported to have reached near 100 degrees. And in 2010 a town a few miles south of the Arctic circle in Russia reached 100.

As a result of the hot-dry conditions right now, numerous fires rage nearby, and smoke is visible for thousands of miles on satellite images.

This heat is not an isolated occurrence. Parts of Siberia have been sizzling for weeks and running remarkably above normal since January. May featured astonishing warmth in western Siberia, where some locales were 18 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, not just for a day, but for the month. As a whole, western Siberia averaged 10 degrees above normal for May, obliterating anything previously experienced.

On May 23, the Siberian town of Khatanga, far north of the Arctic Circle, hit 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This was 46 degrees above normal and shattered the previous record by a virtually unheard-of 22 degrees. On June 9, Nizhnyaya Pesha, an area 900 miles northeast of Moscow, near the Arctic Ocean’s Barents Sea, hit a sweltering 86 degrees Fahrenheit, a staggering 30 degrees above normal.

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What’s perhaps even more impressive is that this relative warmth has persisted since December, with average temperatures in western Siberia 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — doubling the previous departure from average in 2016.

The average heat across Russia from January to May is so remarkable that it matches what’s projected to be normal by the year 2100 if current trends in heat-trapping carbon emissions continue. In the image below, the data point for 2020 is almost off the charts, and matches what climate models expect to be typical many decades from now.

The extreme events of recent years are due to a combination of natural weather patterns and human-caused climate change. The weather pattern giving rise to this heat wave is an incredibly stubborn ridge of high pressure; a dome of heat which extends vertically upward through the atmosphere. The sweltering heat is forecast to remain in place for at least the next week, catapulting temperatures easily into the 90s in eastern Siberia.

But this heat wave can not be viewed as an isolated weather pattern. Last summer, the town of Markusvinsa, a village in northern Sweden on the southern edge of the Arctic Circle, hit 94.6°F. Warming and drying of the landscape is leading to unprecedented Arctic fires, with the summer of 2019 being the worst fire season on record. 

Due to heat trapping greenhouse gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels and feedback loops, the Arctic is warming at more than two times the average rate of the globe. This phenomenon is known as Arctic Amplification, which is leading to the decline of sea ice, and in some cases snow cover, due to rapidly warming temperatures. 

Over the past four decades, sea ice volume has decreased by 50%. The lack of white ice, and corresponding increase in dark ocean and land areas, means less light is reflected and more is absorbed, creating a feedback loop and heating the area disproportionately.

As the average climate continues to heat up, extremes like the current heat wave will become more frequent and intensify. Scientists say there is only one way to dampen the impact of climate change and that is to stop burning fossil fuels.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the name of the town that reported a near-100-degree day in 1915 to Fort Yukon, not Prospect Creek.

First published on June 20, 2020 / 7:21 PM

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.Jeff Berardelli

Jeff Berardelli is CBS News Meteorologist and Climate Specialist. Follow him on Twitter @WeatherProf.

In a first, U.N. refugee report names climate as a threat

E&E News | Thomas Frank The United Nations’ refugee agency cites climate change for the first time in its annual report on displaced persons, signaling a growing recognition that planetary warming aggravates the growing crisis of refugees and internally displaced persons. The “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019” report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says that “climate change and natural disasters can exacerbate threats that force people to flee within their country or across international borders.” Previous “Global Trends” reports are silent on climate change, though the U.N. agency has been increasingly vocal in other contexts about how climate change contributes to environmental degradation and natural disasters that force people to migrate. For example, the refugee agency’s 2009 “Global Trends” report says, “Although displacement resulting from natural disasters is growing in numbers and complexity, it is beyond the scope of this report.” The 2019 “Global Trends” report, released Thursday, paints a gloomy picture of a growing number of refugees, who are forced from their home countries, and internally displaced persons, who are forced to move within their home country. The number of displaced people rose to 79.5 million last year — double the number in 1990 — driven primarily by war and unrest in Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. Those five countries have contributed two-thirds of the world’s displaced people. At the same time, most nations have fully or partially closed their borders in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic has spread internationally.