• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

  • Home
  • About Earth Wise
  • Where to Listen
  • All Articles
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Archives for verkhoyansk

verkhoyansk

The All-Time Hottest Day | Earth Wise

February 14, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change helping set heat records around the world

Last year saw record high temperatures in many places around the world and this year started out with more of the same.  In mid-January, Onslow, a small town in Western Australia, measured a high temperature of 123.3 degrees, tying the all-time highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.  The previous reading was also made in Australia back in 1960.

The new temperature record was set just as climate institutions around the world were announcing that the past seven years have been the highest in recorded history.

The list of temperature records set in 2020 and 2021 is a long one.   2020 was the hottest year in recorded history.  July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded.   The hottest official temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world was 129.9 degrees, occurring in Death Valley, California on both August 16, 2020, and July 9, 2021. 

The hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic was 100.4 degrees on June 20, 2020 in Verkhoyansk in Russia’s Sakha Republic.  (Amazingly, that small town also holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Asia at -90 degrees). 2021 saw an all-time high temperature recorded in Europe, in Syracuse, Sicily, on August 11 at 119.8 degrees. 

Overall, 400 documented weather stations in communities or outposts worldwide established all-time high temperatures in 2021 alone.  The climate we have lived through over the past decades is changing and these changes will have consequences to our way of life.

**********

Web Links

Australia hits 123 degrees, tying hottest temperature on record in Southern Hemisphere

Photo, posted January 21, 2013, courtesy of A. Dombrowski via Flickr.

In ogni caso, un proverbio russo comune Informazioni: “Se curi un raffreddore, passa in sette giorni, e se non lo curi, in una settimana”, non è applicabile alla realtà spagnola.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lægemiddelbehandling, der kan nedsætte udskillelsen af FDE-hæmmere fra kroppen side. Beskrevne tilfælde af dødsfald i forbindelse med indtagelse af Viagra skyldtes oftest kombineret brug af dette lægemiddel med organiske nitrater.

Record Heat In The Arctic | Earth Wise

January 13, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Heat in the Arctic is breaking records

By mid-November, the Arctic stays dark around the clock and twilight does not return until the end of January.  But even as winter darkness descended upon the Arctic this year, record-breaking high temperatures in the region continued.  In late November, temperatures across the entire Arctic basin were 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal and some locations saw temperatures as high as 30 degrees above normal.

The entire summer and fall in the Arctic were characterized by exceptionally warm temperatures.  In June, the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk – located north of the Arctic Circle – registered a high temperature of 100.4 degrees.  The refreezing of the Arctic Ocean was greatly delayed this year.  The Northeast Passage along the Siberian Coast remained navigable for a record 112 days before freezing in November, breaking the previous record by more than a month.  The extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean in October was the lowest ever recorded for that month.

The strongest warming occurring in the Arctic is during the fall.  That is because rapidly disappearing sea ice is enabling the dark waters of the Arctic Ocean to absorb heat in the summer and then radiate it back into the atmosphere until late in the fall.  The Arctic region is heating up three times faster than the rest of the planet, which has led to the volume of sea ice decreasing by 2/3 in the past 40 years.

According to researchers, the extreme heat in Siberia this year would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change and became 600 times more likely because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.

**********

Web Links

Record-shattering Warmth Pushes Arctic Temperatures to 12 Degrees F Above Normal

Photo, posted September 1, 2009, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via Flickr. Photo Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Siberian Heat | Earth Wise

July 24, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Record temperatures recorded in Siberia

Siberia has been experiencing unprecedented high temperatures in recent months.  May was the hottest May on record and temperatures in Siberia have stayed well above average for the past year.

On June 20, temperatures in the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk hit 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a record-high temperature in one of the fastest-warming places in the world.  Average high temperatures in June reach 68 degrees.  Verkhoyansk sits on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle and, during the winter, is one of the world’s coldest towns.  In 1892, its temperature dropped to -90 degrees Fahrenheit.  And now there is hundred-degree heat above the Arctic Circle.

Siberia tends to experience large temperature swings month-to-month and year-to year.  But it is very unusual for temperatures to stay well over average over an extended period of time as they have for the past year.  According to climate scientists, the kind of temperature swings seen recently would only happen once in 100,000 years if it were not for climate change.

Siberia has seen raging wildfires and structural damage from thawing permafrost as its temperatures have stayed warmer than normal.  The prolonged Siberian heatwave is an alarming situation.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the Earth because of a process known as Arctic amplification.  The acceleration of the Arctic ice melt leads to a seasonal snow cover that isn’t as white.  It therefore absorbs more sunlight, which then leads to more warming.

The amplified warming of the Arctic with its increased melting of ice leads to higher sea levels, and not just in the Arctic Ocean.  With less Arctic ice to reflect sunlight, the world’s oceans continue to warm. 

**********

Web Links

Temperatures in an Arctic Siberian town hit 100 degrees, a new high

Photo, posted December 7, 2014, courtesy of Olga Dudenko via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Episodes

  • An uninsurable future
  • Clean energy and jobs
  • Insect declines in remote regions
  • Fossil fuel producing nations ignoring climate goals
  • Trouble for clownfishes

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)

Copyright © 2025 ·