Russia recorded an all-time heat record in the least place one would probably expect to find a heatwave: that’s above the Artcic Circle in Siberia, as the region continues to swelter.
The extreme weather in the town of Verkhoyansk is thought to be linked with a combination of extreme factors, including a series of wildfires, a recent oil spill, droughts and an infestation of tree-eating moths.
Over the weekend, the weather portal Pogoda i Klimat based in Verkhoyansk. reported that the thermometer touched 38 degrees. If confirmed, meteorologists claimed this would be a new record for anywhere in the Arctic Circle.
The current “official” highest temperature every recorded in the region was that of 37.8 set in Fort Yukon, Alaska, in June 1915.
Verkhoyansk holds the Guinness World Record for the highest recorded temperature range of 105 C, fluctuating from minus 68 C to a high of 37 C. The previous temperature record for the isolated town of around 1,300 residents stood at 37.3 C in July 1988.
The gas-rich town’s forecast for the rest of the week hovers in the low-to-mid 30s C, a full 10 degrees warmer than its average highs for late June.
The prolonged heat was not exclusive to Siberia, with Russia having just gone through the warmest winter in at least 130 years.
Sergei Semyonov of the Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology in Moscow said that such heat waves aren’t necessarily new to Siberia, but that climate change is increasing their severity and length.
Andrei Kiselev, Ph.D., a leading climatologist at the Voeikov Geophysical Observatory in St. Petersburg, said it’s no longer possible to prevent climate change altogether and that efforts to adapt to the changing climate should be prioritized instead.
Read more via The Moscow Times
