The Storm that will Unfreeze the North Pole

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Robinson Meyer reports that the sun had not risen above the North Pole since mid-September. The sea ice is flat, landlike, windswept, and stretching as far as the eye can see, has been bathed in darkness for months. But in January, something extraordinary will happen. Air temperatures at the most northernly region of the Earth, in the middle of winter, will rise above freezing for only the second time on record. On Dececember 30, 2015 the same storm system that the last week of December spun up deadly tornadoes in the American southeast will burst into the far north, centering over Iceland. It will bring strong winds and pressure as low as is typically seen during hurricanes. That low pressure will suck air out of the middle latitudes and send it rushing to the Arctic. And so on the 30th , the North Pole will likely see temperatures of about 35 degrees F, or 2 degrees C. That is 50 degrees hotter than average. It is usually 20 degrees F below zero there at this time of year.

Winter temperatures have only snuck above freezing at the North Pole once before. Eric Holthaus, meterologist, could not find an Arctic expert who had witnessed above-freezing temperatures at the pole between December and early April. 2015 is the warmest year ever recorded. 13 of the top 14 warmest years on the books have happened this century. And here in the U.S., it has been a hot, strange month. Many cities across the northeast smashed their Christmas and Christmas Eve temperature records not at midday, but at the stroke of midnight. For the hundred-plus years that New York temperatures have been recorded, the city has never been warmer than 63 degrees F on a December 24. Yet at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve of this year, the thermometer measured 67 degrees. Some of this North American heat is a regular feature of every El Nino. But in the Arctic, this level of warmth is unprecedented. In order for this hot storm to reach Iceland on Wednesday, it is punching right through the Jet Stream....