With this yr expect to come in as the warm on record , things are not looking good for the frosty poles . Despite it being winter in the Northern Hemisphere – a clip when the Arctic is supposed to be at its coldest – researchers are expectingthat the region will be reach by another warm period in the middle of this season .
While the major planet has warmed by just over 1 ° C ( 1.8 ° F ) above baseline , the Arctic is continuing to warm at double this rate . At the beginning of this winter , some area of the far Union were experiencingtemperaturesa whopping 20 ° cytosine ( 36 ° F ) higher than normal for that time of the year , causing the sea chalk to depart melt when it should have been grow .
Driven by a patch of abject pressure currently sitting over Greenland , The Guardianreports that it is pulling in ardent tune that normally stays in the south , take to a midwinter heating . While these event have occur before , the frequency of them isincreasing . “ These are very unknown temperatures and are getting very penny-pinching to slay the freezing compass point , which is unbelievable for this time of year , ” explains the University of Melbourne ’s Andrew King to The Guardian .
Ice extent in 2016 , with the colored rail line exhibit the median frappe extents during the menses 1981 - 2010 . NOAA
And the impact of all this hotness is begin to be feel . Animal migrations are already shifting to account for the increase in temperature , as reindeer areno longer treadingtheir transmissible itinerary . They are moving further and further north , seek colder regions so as to escape the bite mosquito that have moved north with the heating environs . Grizzly bears have been found to be be active northward , while glacial bears move south due to the lack of chalk , lead toan increase in interactionsbetween the two specie and therefore more hybrids .
But it is not only the animate being that are feel the effect of the warming Arctic . Some mood scientists thinkthat the thawing of the polar cap is already regulate the weather in more southerly latitudes . The narrowing of the temperature difference between the Arctic and the mid - northern latitudes has led to a weakening of the jet flow , the strong wind that forms the bound between the Arctic and the rest period of the Northern Hemisphere . This can lead to cold air " slipping " south , and give rise to the extreme levels of C. P. Snow and ice see to it in both North America and Europe over the past few years .
These warming temperatures put us in unchartered territory , therefore it ’s difficult to predict what will lead from what ’s currently hold out on in the Arctic .
