When I think of Siberia I think of an endless winter with horribly frigid weather. However, Verkhoyansk, Russia located north of the Arctic Circle is seeing record-breaking temperatures thanks to an extended heatwave. Temperatures reached 100.4°F on June 20, 2020 signaling yet another sign the planet’s climate is changing drastically.  (1)

Highest Reading In Siberia

The temperature is the highest ever recorded since 1885. “For a long time, we’ve been saying we’re going to get more extremes like strong heat waves,” says Ruth Mottram, Danish Meteorological Institute climate scientist. “It’s a little like the projections are coming true, and sooner than we might have thought.” (1)

The temperature represents a brief spike due to the heatwave which will probably last another week. While such temperatures are unusual, they are not unheard of. Inland summer temperatures reached 100°F (37.7°C) in Fort Yukon, Alaska back in 1915 for example. (1)

“At this time of the year, around the summer solstice, you get 24 hours of sunlight,” says climate scientist Walt Meier, of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “That’s a lot of solar energy coming in. So in these high-latitude areas—80 degrees, 90 degrees, that’s not unheard of.” (1)

Extreme Reading In Siberia

Extreme temperatures in the Arctic are warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The warming has risen between 3.6 to 5.4°F (2 to 3°C) over the past century. When a heatwave hits, it is much more severe since normal summer temperatures are already so high. (1)

“It has been really bizarre to see,” says climate scientist Ivana Cvijanovic, from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. “All across Siberia, it has really been so hot for so long. January, then February, then March, then April. The pattern—it really stands out.” (1)

Reading In Siberia And Snow Melt

The area also saw snowmelt earlier. This is important to note as snow helps keep the Arctic cool by reflecting solar heat. If it melts early, it leaves the area more vulnerable to heat as the ground beneath the snow absorbs heat instead of reflecting it. (1)

Combined with a high-pressure system over western Siberia, the cloudless skies provided the solar heat needed to warm the area. “The air is just kind of trapped there; it’s like an oven sitting over the area, just heating it up more and more the longer it sits there,” says Meier. (1)

Immobile Heat Waves Cause Higher Reading In Siberia

These immobile heatwaves have occurred more often in recent years. In fact, 97% of Greenland’s ice sheet turned into slush in 2012. In High Arctic Svalbard, Norway, there was more rain than snow in the winter of 2016. All these changes lead to issues including forming limpid blue pools, flooding, and wildfires. “There’s lots and lots of vegetation and forest across Siberia,” says Meier. “And when it’s hot like this for so long, it dries out and becomes like a tinderbox.” (1)

“By 2100, under an extreme warming scenario, we would expect to see an event like this every year,” says Robert Rohde, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth. The south pole is having similar issues reaching close to 65°F (18.3°C) on the Antarctic Peninsula this January. (1)

Reading In Siberia Increasing Risk

Although it isn’t confirmed this heatwave is due to climate change, it certainly does appear it is human-caused.  Unfortunately, these temperatures can cause irreparable change to the Russian Arctic permafrost and its carbon-rich peat soils. Scientists predict that by 2050 large areas of the Arctic’s infrastructure will be at risk due to this type of thawing. (1)

If it gets that bad in the Arctic, it’s hard to imagine how hot our city centers might become. (1)