It’s December and across the Arctic, a proper winter has just begun, but much much later than normal.
For residents across the far northern communities it seemed more like spring than winter during November.
It some places during the month temperatures were anywhere from a few degrees higher than normal to 20 degrees Celsius above normal around the North Pole. The Danish Meteorological Institute monitors polar weather hourly. Martin Stendel, a DMI climate researcher based in Copenhagen told the Associated Press that, “This is by far the highest recorded (temperatures). What we are observing is very unusual”.
Although many places were hovering around zero C, it was often only just below zero when it should have been in the minus teens and twenties. Some birds which should have left weeks ago on a migration south, such as sparrows, were still seen hanging around
Several records for high temperatures were broken and there were concerns as well that sea ice already at record lows and which should be forming as winter began, was instead melting and retreating. As December begins, cold has returned and the temperatures are heading back towards more typical numbers.
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