Head to the Arctic Circle if you want a spot of warmth
FOR those already fed up with what is now officially the meteorological start of spring and planning a trip abroad, in a curious twist of the elements you may wish to head north rather than south.
As Britain and much of Europe sits buried under snow – pity the poor young strawberries I planted a few weeks ago – the Arctic is witnessing one of its warmest winters ever.
Indeed, parts of the Arctic Circle have been warmer than Britain in recent days. On Thursday the Greenland city of Sisimiut recorded temperatures of 40F (4.4C). In Tredegar in Wales, meanwhile, the mercury never got above 22F (-5.5C) scooping the record for Britain’s coldest spring day, beating the previous record low of 23F (-5C) at Cassley in Sutherland, Scotland, measured on March 2, 2001.
Yesterday residents in parts of Dartmoor woke to six inches of snow. While occasional balmy spells in the Arctic have been observed since 1896, scientists believe the current string of warm winters are part of a disturbing new pattern possibly linked to colder European temperatures and bought about by climate change.
As with the sudden stratospheric warming event which has caused the current big freeze, major polar storms blowing moist air from the Atlantic cause the Arctic to dramatically warm at the same time as drawing in chill winds across Europe.
The increased temperatures are also having a major impact on sea ice. In just eight days in mid-february when the latest disruption to the polar vortex occurred, nearly a third of the sea ice covering the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska simply vanished.
The fear is record low sea ice will speed the melting of the polar caps, leading to sea level rises across the globe. It seems we should not be the only country issuing red alerts.
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