In a first, North Pole becomes warmer than Europe

March 3, 2018 10:10 AM | Skymet Weather Team

The Arctic and the Antarctic regions are the coldest pockets on the Earth. At the moment, the Southern Hemisphere is observing the summer season while the Northern Hemisphere is observing the thick of winters. Thus, the arctic region should be the coldest at this point of time. Antarctica becomes the coldest when it is summer season for Northern Hemisphere. During their coldest period, temperatures in the -20s become a common affair for the region.

However, off late, the scenario has remained completely different. The North Pole has been witnessing above normal temperatures. Moreover, the region has recorded above freezing temperatures for a whopping 61 hours. The highest record before this was at 16 hours in the year 1980. This situation is quite alarming for the world on the whole.

[yuzo_related]

Land is colder by characteristic as compared to water bodies. Usually, the South Pole is warmer than North Pole as the former lies in the vicinity of oceans while the latter has land all across. Northern Hemisphere has a chunk of landmass which is supposed to be colder.

Over a period of time, due to the effects of Global Warming, ice content is decreasing which has led to holes in the Arctic region. Thus, depletion of ice content is taking place which will further expose water bodies. The North Pole has Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Bering strait on the other side. Thus, the heat will be released from the oceans into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the Siberian blast keeps intruding Europe and its neighbouring areas resulting in cold weather conditions across Europe. While Europe has seen temperatures going in the negatives going until -8 degrees Celsius while no station at North Pole has seen temperatures in the negatives.

Thus, currently North Pole remains warmer than Europe which should be a worrying cause as this is not a good sign at all.

Image Credit: mashable

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