The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
STORYLINE
38C/100F, a record Arctic temperature confirmed, others likely to follow: WMO
A new and disturbing high temperature record for the Arctic of 38C/100F was confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday.
Worryingly, the temperature reading in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk taken last June is "just one of a series” of potentially record-breaking observations from around the planet in 2020 that the agency is seeking to verify, spokesperson Clare Nullis told journalists in Geneva.
“The World Meteorological Organization has this morning recognized a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius which is a staggering 100.4 Fahrenheit in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. It was recorded last year, so 20 June 2020 and we have recognized it as a new Arctic record.”
Describing the record as a temperature “more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic”, WMO explained in a statement that average temperatures over Arctic Siberia reached 10C above normal for much of last summer.
It noted that the Siberian town is 115 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.
“If you cast your mind back to last year, you will recall there was an exceptional, prolonged Siberian heatwave, as a result of this heatwave we saw devastating and very widespread Siberian fires and we saw massive Arctic sea ice loss at the end of the summer season,” Ms. Nullis said.
The furnace-like conditions also contributed to 2020 becoming one of the three warmest years on record, the WMO spokesperson explained, adding that the Siberian heatwave “would have been almost impossible without climate change” – and that a new category for record temperatures in the Arctic had to be created as a result of the Verhoyansk reading and ongoing climate change.
In WMO’s Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes, the category is listed as “highest recorded temperature at or north of 66.5⁰, the Arctic Circle”.
Although WMO’s Nullis warned that the Arctic is “one of the fastest warming parts of the world; it’s warming more than twice as fast as the global average”, she added that climate change has forced up temperatures elsewhere, which the UN agency is busy verifying.
“Last year also there was a new temperature record in the Antarctic continent of 18.3 degrees Celsius that was recorded at an Argentinian base called Esperanza,” she said.
WMO investigators are seeking to verify temperature readings of 54.4C recorded in both 2020 and 2021 in the world’s hottest place, Death Valley in California.
In addition, they are also assessing a new reported European temperature record of 48.8C in the Italian island of Sicily this summer.
“The WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes has never had so many ongoing simultaneous investigations,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, in a statement.
ends
STORY: Arctic Heat Temperature Record - WMO
TRT: 1 min 50s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 14 December 2021 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Wide shot: exterior, flag alley, Palais des Nations, United Nations Geneva
2. Wide shot: press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The World Meteorological Organization has this morning recognized a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius which is a staggering 100.4 Fahrenheit in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. It was recorded last year, so 20 June 2020 and we have recognized it as a new Arctic record.”
4. Medium shot, side angle of podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “If you cast your mind back to last year, you will recall there was an exceptional, prolonged Siberian heatwave, as a result of this heatwave we saw devastating and very widespread Siberian fires and we saw massive Arctic sea ice loss at the end of the summer season.”
6. Wide shot: journalists typing, podium in the background
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The heat that we saw in Siberia in 2020 would have been almost impossible without climate change.”
8. Close-up: journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The Arctic as the WMO keeps saying is one of the fastest warming parts of the world; it’s warming more than twice as fast as the global average.”
10. Medium shot: journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Last year also there was a new temperature record in the Antarctic continent of 18.3 degrees Celsius that was recorded at an Argentinian base called Esperanza.”
12. Medium shot: journalist
13. Medium shot: journalist
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN rights chief urges de-escalation in Tigray amid rising tensions and violence.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , WHO , OHCHR
In Sudan, sick and starving children ‘wasting away’ – UN humanitarians
Relentless violence, famine and disease are picking off Sudan’s children while attacks on healthcare and a lack of aid access hamper efforts to help them, UN humanitarian agencies warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday gave an update to the Human Rights Council on the situation in El Fasher, Sudan.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“A series of new Israeli operations and settlement plans in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, risk seriously undermining the viability of a Palestinian state and the realisation of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told the bi-weekly press conference in Geneva today.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNIS
UN voices concern over chemical spraying incident on Lebanon’s Blue Line
The UN reiterated concerns on Friday at reports that Israeli forces sprayed herbicide over areas north of the Blue Line separating Lebanon from Israel. The development poses a “serious humanitarian risk” to civilians living there, said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), briefing journalists in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Five patients evacuated as Rafah reopens while ‘too many stayed behind’ – WHO
As time is running out for thousands of critically ill patients in Gaza, hope is alive for medical evacuations to increase with the reopening of the Rafah crossing in the southern part of the Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNOG , OHCHR
This Sunday marks five years of crisis in Myanmar. Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights, and James Rodehaver, chief of the Myanmar team, today spoke on the conduct of recent military-imposed elections, deploring the failure to respect the fundamental human rights of the country’s citizens. The process served only to exacerbate violence and societal polarization.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Brutal Gaza war erased years of progress on education, in an “assault on the future itself” – UNICEF
Restoring Gaza’s shattered education system is “lifesaving” and getting children back into schools must be an immediate priority, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , HRC
Volker Türk, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, made the following remarks during a briefing to a Special Session on Iran at the Human Rights Council.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , UNOPS , UNIS
Amid the launch of President Trump's Board of Peace and reconstruction talks on Gaza, UN aid agencies insisted on Friday that what Gazans need most is immediate relief from the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there.
2
6
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences , Images | HRC
At UN, war crimes probe pledges to continue to work for all impacted by Hamas-Israel conflict
As President Trump launched the international Board of Peace plan for Gaza on Thursday, top independent rights experts tasked by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating grave abuses linked to the Hamas-Israel war pledged to continue their work seeking justice and accountability for all.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said Tuesday UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.