As you turn your thermostat several degrees higher and bring your coat out of hibernation, it might not feel like winter is being kind, but you would be wrong.
In another piece of news that confirms 2016 has been one devastating blow after another, the North Pole is now recording concerning November temperatures.
In fact, the Arctic is currently a staggering 36 degrees warmer than normal at this time of year, according to information from the Danish Meteorological Institute.
At this point in the calendar the Arctic has usually plummeted into a deep freeze – with the long polar nights and no exposure to sunlight – allowing the sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean to thicken.
Zack Labe, PHD student at the University of California who studies the Arctic, has been sharing data from the Climate Change Institute and National Snow and Ice Data Centre, showing the freak weather patterns this year.
The first graph shared by Labe on his Twitter account, shows the slowdown in sea ice between the 1980’s and 2016.
He captioned the data: “Extreme warm Arctic-cold Siberia dipole. Another slow down currently in #seaice growth in response to temp anomalies.”
Labe then shared a graph from the DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) showing temperatures continuing to get warmer in correlation with the sea ice decline.
Labe said: “Today’s latest Arctic temperature continues to move the wrong direction…up. Quite an anomalous spike!”
The graph shows temperatures north of 80 latitude (the Arctic circle) were sitting at around minus 5 degrees Celcius on Tuesday 15 November, which may sound cold, but is actually far off the average minus 25 degrees for this time of year.
Labe added: “There is nothing close to this particular period in the ERA40 record.”
“Apologies for the incessant, daily updates on temperature and sea ice changes, but this fall [Autumn] is just remarkable for lack of a better word.”
Sounds promising.