The United Nations has officially recognised a temperature of 38C measured in Siberia last year, sounding “alarm bells” over climate change.
The new high was recorded on June 20, 2020, in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, marking the highest temperature ever recorded within the Arctic Circle, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.
The temperature was measured at a meteorological station during a prolonged Siberian heatwave. The WMO described it as “more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic”.
The UN agency has added the record high to its archive of extreme weather reports, in a time of unprecedented numbers of global temperature spikes.
“This 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 our changing climate,” Petteri Taalas, the WMO’s secretary-general, said in a statement.
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The archive tracks the world’s highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hailstone events, longest dry periods, maximum gusts of wind, longest lightning flashes and weather-related mortalities.
Adding the Arctic heat record to the archive recognises the dramatic changes in the region as a result of climate change.
● A great thaw threatens Russia’s kingdom of eternal ice
The town of Verkhoyansk lies about 115km (70 miles) north of the Arctic Circle and temperatures have been measured there since 1885. Verkhoyansk has historically vied for the title “the Pole of Cold” with another Siberian settlement, Oymyakon.
The average temperatures across Siberia were consistently up to 10C above normal for much of last summer.
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The temperatures were fuelled by forest fires and massive sea-ice loss, according to the agency, and played a significant role in 2020 being designated one of the three warmest years on record.
Last year also saw a record high of 18.3C for the Antarctic continent and the WMO is trying to verify the 54.4C recorded in both 2020 and 2021 in the world’s hottest location, Death Valley in California, Taalas said.
More of its experts are working on the validation of a new European temperature record of 48.8C, reported in Sicily in the summer of 2021.
The WMO’s archive “has never had so many ongoing simultaneous investigations”, Taalas said.
