Shrinking sea ice blamed for record-breaking winter temperatures

Much of the Arctic is in a burst of freak December warming.

In Alaska’s northernmost community Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, it hit 4.4C on Tuesday.

That’s not only a record by 3.3C but it’s the warmest that region has seen on record from late October to late April, according to Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Centre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

It rained over the weekend in Nome, Alaska, which is unusual but not unheard of for December and the town also had record-breaking warmth on Monday.

Savoonga Creek was flooding and didn’t have snow cover, nor did the town of Teller, northwest of Nome, where snow this time of year is used for drinking water, Thoman said.

On Monday, the Arctic as a whole averaged 6.4C warmer than the 1979-2000 average temperature, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.

In Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday it was shirt-sleeve weather for December, when the temperature peaked at 12.2C, 14.4C above the normal high mark.

In Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, on Saturday it hit 8.9C, 18.9C warmer than normal.

“The entire Arctic is hot except for small portions of the central and eastern Canadian Arctic and a very small portion of Siberia,” Thoman said from a warmer-than-normal Fairbanks.

Part of it is because of a system of storms, which is likely just random weather, but part is it from lower than normal sea ice, which is humancaused climate change, Thoman said.

Sea ice in the Arctic is about sixth lowest on record, according to the

National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

It’s far below normal “but we’ve seen worse”, Thoman said.

Sea ice matters because in areas of the Arctic there’s no sun in the winter and the atmosphere is cold.

But if there’s open water, that’s usually warmer than the atmosphere.

“Think of that as a heating pad and it’s just emitting heat into the atmosphere,” Thoman said.

Because of that reduced sea ice, much of the Arctic is now warming four times faster than the rest of the globe, which leads to an increase in “winter warm events”, said Danish Meteorological Service ice scientist Jason Box, who studies Greenland.

“Some people cry ‘come off it, it’s just weather’,” Box said.

“However, record-setting weather like we’re seeing plenty of examples of in recent years does tell a real story of climate heating.” —AP

Photo / AP A seal hunter drags his catch ashore in Sishmaref, Alaska. The state has been seeing unseasonably warm temperatures for the time of year.