‘Beast from the East' sweeps across Europe as Arctic warming brings freak weather

A freak warming around the North Pole is sending a blast of Arctic cold over Europe in a sign of "wacky" weather that may happen more often with man-made global warming.

Global warming could be causing the Arctic to warm
and cold blasts to be pushed over Europe.

Scientists say the northern tip of Greenland has had a record-smashing 61 hours of temperatures above freezing so far this year, linked to a rare retreat of sea ice in the Arctic winter darkness.

Arctic Ocean sea ice is at a record low for late February, at 14.1 million square kilometres. That is about a million square kilometres less than normal, or roughly the size of Egypt.

Around the entire Arctic region, temperatures are now about 20C above normal, at minus 8C.

Read the ABC News story - “‘Beast from the East' sweeps across Europe as Arctic warming brings freak weather.”