38 Celsius or 100 Fahrenheit! Arctic temperature record broken in Verkhoyansk

Live Science with reference to the Washington Post reports on a new temperature maximum recorded in Siberia.

Irina Ziganshina

Last Saturday, June 20, was the hottest day in the history of the Arctic. The temperature in Verkhoyansk, located in the Far North, for the first time exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38 degrees Celsius, news agencies reported.

Verkhoyansk is a city in Yakutia with a population of about 1300 people, known as the coldest city on Earth. The temperature range in Verkhoyansk is also one of the most extreme on Earth. The average winter lows here are -49 ° C, and the previous record summer maximum was 37.2 ° C.

On Saturday, several weather stations reported a new high. 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38 Celsius, is the highest temperature recorded in the city since the beginning of record keeping in 1885. The next day, Sunday, June 21, the city was 35.2 ° C - as confirmation that the Saturday heat was not an accidental outbreak.

This information is still being checked, but if it is confirmed, then the Saturday maximum will become the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic Circle.

The Russian Arctic in this has already felt the influence of record temperatures. First, a fuel spill occurred in Norilsk, then forest fires swept the region. Now, according to the Federal Forestry Agency of Russia, more than 400,000 hectares of forest in the Republic of Sakha, to which Verkhoyansk belongs, are covered by fires.

For many years now, average temperatures in the Arctic have been growing faster than anywhere else in the world. The main reason is the melting of sea ice caused by anthropogenic global warming.

In the photo is summer in Yakutia.