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Freakishly warm air has again surged over the North Pole, and sea ice is breaking up north of Greenland — in winter

Discover how a sudden stratospheric warming event leads to unusual Arctic temperature shifts and impacts on sea ice extent.

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A weather model forecast for how near-surface temperatures should vary from the long-term mean between Feb. 24th and 26th, 2018. Pinkish colors over the North Pole indicate temperatures near or above freezing. (Source: ClimateReanalyzer.org) It's happening again: In the dead of winter, warm air from the south is surging across the Arctic toward the North Pole. Today, weather models suggest that temperatures there have indeed soared to above freezing. Meanwhile, cold polar air has spilled south into Eurasia and western North America. It's almost as if someone left the Arctic's refrigerator door open, allowing its frigid air to pour out and warm air to flow in. While dramatic warming events like this have happened before, a recent study shows that they are becoming more frequent and intense. In the study, scientists looked at winter air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean from 1893 to 2017. They found that since 1980, an ...

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