In Antarctica, temperatures at one monitoring station last weekend were less than 40 degrees Celsius higher than usual, and in another, the temperature record for that time of year was broken by 15 degrees. At the North Pole, Spiesbergen and Lapland it will be 30 degrees warmer in some places than usual.
This is not an exaggeration for scientists who want to draw attention to the forthcoming climate report, assures glaciologist and weather forecaster Peter Kuipers-Monnecke (Utrecht University). “This is very special and really ridiculous.”
The heat is caused by unusually hot air, both in the upper and lower part of the globe, which is pushed by immobile high-pressure areas far north and south. In Antarctica, an “atmospheric river”, as meteorologists call it, creates warm, cloudy weather. Meanwhile, the fine air near the North Pole creates temperatures that one would normally expect later in the year.
insanely hot
“Especially in Antarctica, this is really a species strange event† Very exceptional, says Kuipers Monnecki. Around the North Pole, this is not the highest temperature ever recorded, but we are seeing this kind of very light event more and more. It’s incredibly hot this time of year. His colleague Arnaut van Delden points out that the heat in any case shines through the North Pole itself.
Records are being broken as the Arctic begins to warm up after winter, and Antarctica should cool down rapidly as winter arrives. Kuipers Monecki explains that at those hotspots between summer and winter, the temperature at the poles is sensitive to changing air currents because the sun is still very low. “If that ever has to happen, it’s in one of those shoulder seasons.”
For example, the heat wave in the far north is closely linked to mild weather here, explains Van Delden. The reason is a high pressure region that currently lies over Scandinavia. “It happens a lot in March, April and May,” Van Delden says.
As a result, cold Arctic air is attracted to southern and eastern Europe, while in our region the air is exceptionally soft and the soft air moves to Lapland. For example, in Athens this week it will be twice as cold as expected in Scotland, and it snowed last weekend in Turkey and Cyprus, while Holland was bitten by the sun.
Short-term
In Antarctica, a heat wave will have few consequences. At weather stations where the records were measured, they remained below zero despite the “value”. And the highlight was short-term: meanwhile, the temperature drops again after a few days. In Antarctica, the atmospheric river will mainly cause snow, Kuipers-Munecki predicts.
Secretary General Petteri Taalas opened the 56th formal meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in sunny and temperate Geneva on Monday. Over the next two weeks, government representatives will discuss the exact text of the final section of the new IPCC report, the section dealing with greenhouse gas emissions.
The sub-report identifies, among other things, developments in the field of carbon dioxide2Capture, which is generally considered absolutely necessary to keep the global temperature below the agreed 1.5 degree warming.
“The clear message is that we need to be more committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Talas said in the opening remarks. “For now, we will not go to the 1.5-degree target.”
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