Verkhoyansk (67.5°N latitude) is a town in the Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle. With a population of 1,311 people, Verkhoyansk is notable mainly for its exceptionally low winter temperatures and some of the greatest temperature differences on Earth between summer and winter.
Average monthly temperatures range from −45.4 °C (−49.7 °F) in January to +16.5 °C (61.7 °F) in July, so an anomaly like 100 degrees Fahrenheit will certainly raise eyebrows. The temperature will have to be verified, and if it stands, it will be the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic Circle, which begins at 66.5°N, reports
Forbes.
The town of Verkhoyansk is 3,000 miles north of Moscow and is further north than Fairbanks, Alaska. To lend a little perspective, on Friday, the
city of Caribou, Maine, tied an all-time record at 96 degrees Fahrenheit and on Saturday, hit the 90-degree mark again,
The 'other' new normal facing the Arctic
While the temperature in Verkhoyansk Saturday has undoubtedly set a record, the bigger problem is the months-long above average temperatures that have plagued Siberia, as the Climate Change Service of the European Copernicus network recently showed.
EuroNews is reporting that this heatwave, overshadowed somewhat by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a sign of accelerating climate change, according to the United Nations.
"It's certainly an alarming sign,” said Freja Vamborg, senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service. She said it is not surprising because global warming fluctuates and the polar regions are undergoing more rapid changes than the rest of the planet, but what is unusual is the weather “has persisted with warmer than average anomalies”.
