If Santa
really did reside at the North Pole, he could probably have doffed his
thick coat for a few hours this week to dig his sled out of the slush.
Despite being shrouded in darkness since early October, the
top of this world recorded temperatures that appear to have been above freezing
point for about six hours on Wednesday, thanks to a huge storm that steered
tropical warmth into the high latitudes.
The Arctic has long been observed as warming at about twice
the rate as elsewhere on Earth, but the 30-plus degrees Celsius jump above the
average for this time of year was a stunning reading – sending polar
temperatures briefly above cities like Chicago in the US and Vienna in Austria
far to the south.
Read what Sydney Morning Herald environment editor, Peter
Hannam writes in the Melbourne Age - “Extreme times: world's weather is on a weird track that will continue into 2016.”
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