38 Degrees Celsius Recorded In Siberia Last Year Is Highest Arctic Temperature Ever, UN Confirms

The new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about climate change.

New Delhi: The United Nations (UN) officially recognised the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberia last year as a new Arctic temperature record, on Tuesday. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas said in a statement that the new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about climate change.

The WMO is UN's authoritative voice on Weather, Climate and Water. 

On June 20, 2020, a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. During an exceptional and prolonged Siberian heatwave, the temperature was measured at a meteorological observing station. Average temperatures as high as 10 degrees Celsius above normal persisted for much of summer over Arctic Siberia last year. A temperature of 38 degrees is unlikely in the Arctic, and fuelled devastating fires and drove massive sea ice loss last year. In the statement, WMO pointed out that the temperature was "more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic". The heatwave played a significant role in 2020, which has been designated as one of the three warmest years on record globally.

Quoting Professor Taalas, the WMO statement said that the organisation's investigators are currently seeking to verify temperature readings of 54.4 degrees Celsius recorded this year and the previous year in Death Valley, California, the hottest place in the world. He added that the investigators will validate a new 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 is heating more than twice the global average. Prompted by the extreme temperature and ongoing climate change, a WMO panel of experts added a new climate change category, "highest recorded temperature at or north of 66.5°, the Arctic Circle", to its international Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes. Polar regions are now represented in the new category. The WMO added temperature extremes for the Antarctic region in 2007.

Verkhoyansk, which is around 115 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, is in a region of Eastern Siberia that has an extreme dry continental climate. This means the region has very cold winters and hot summers.

Professor Randall Cerveny, Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO, said the investigation highlights the increasing temperatures occuring for a climatically important region of the world, according to the WMO statement. He added that the WMO can remain knowledgeable about the changes occuring in the polar Arctic through continued monitoring and assessment of temperature extremes. 

The Extremes Are Climate Snapshots Of Current Climate

The WMO said in the statement that the extremes of temperature, pressure, wind, and other parameters, presented before the WMO, are 'snapshots' of our current climate. It is likely that greater extremes will occur in the Arctic region in the future, the WMO noted. 

Dr Phil Jones, UK climatologist and committee member, noted that the record is clearly indicative of warming across Siberia. 

Dr Blair Trein from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, said that verifying records of this type is important in having a reliable base of evidence as to how our climate's "most extreme extremes" are changing.

Detailed Verification Of Extremes

A reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts interim was performed, along with an analysis of other data and metadata. The committee of experts determined that the observations taken at Verkhoyansk were consistent at surrounding stations, and that the weather conditions were consistent with the record temperature.

The committee requested that climate data be checked for other possible past Arctic extremes of comparable value because this was a new climate category for the WMO Archive.

There were no known temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius or above at any Arctic locations, according to historical research established from the national records of Arctic countries. 

The WMO Archive of Extremes listed the official lowest recorded temperature for areas at or north of the Arctic Circle as -69.6 degrees Celsius. This temperature was recorded on December 22, 1991, in Greenland, WMO said in the statement.