Reports that temperatures in a Russian town in the Arctic Circle likely reached a record 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) have been approved pending final verification by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), its spokesperson said today (23 Jun).

WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said, “the World Meteorological Organization is seeking to verify reports of a new temperature record north of the Arctic circle,” adding that “it was reported in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk amid a prolonged Siberian heatwave and increase in wildfire activity.”

Nullis explained to reporters in Geneva that if the Russian authorities confirm the temperature observation taken last weekend in Verkhoyansk, WMO will then refer the finding for a further detailed review by an international panel of experts.

The region of Eastern Siberia now in the spotlight is known for its weather extremes both in winter and in summer, she added, with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius not unusual in July.

Nullis said, “we’ve asked experts from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring which is known by Roshydromet.”

According to WMO, the Arctic is heating at roughly twice the global average.

The heat spike follows a prolonged Siberian heatwave and wildfire period, Nullis explained, after an unusually warm spring that was also characterised by a lack of snow.

“Siberia has experienced unusual heat this spring,” Nullis continued. “May was about 10 degrees Celsius (18.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average in many parts of Siberia and it was this extraordinary heat” which accounted for the warmest May on record for the northern hemisphere.

According to WMO, air temperatures in the Arctic from 2016 to 2019 were the highest on record.
Equally worrying, the volume of Arctic sea ice in September 2019 – after the melting season - declined by more than 50 per cent, compared to the average from 1979 to 2019.

WMO’s verification process involves requesting additional information from the Russian meteorological service Roshydromet, including the readings, the type of equipment used and how the observation corresponds to others taken by surrounding weather stations.

This latest report of an Arctic temperature that is more typical of the Tropics comes a few months after the Argentine research base, Esperanza, on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, set a new record temperature of 18.4 degrees Celsius (65.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on 6 February 2020, WMO said.

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