U.N. confirms 2020 Arctic heat record
Verkhoyansk, where the record temperature was hit on June 20, 2020, is 115 kilometres (71 miles) north of the Arctic Circle – a region warming at more than double the global average.
The extreme heat fanned wildfires across northern Russia's forests and tundra, even igniting normally waterlogged peatlands, and releasing carbon record emissions.
"This heatwave did play a major role in 2020 being the, one of the warmest three years on record. The heat that we saw in Siberia in 2020 would have been almost impossible without climate change," WMO spokeswoman, Clare Nullis told a news briefing in Geneva.
The probe was one of a record number of investigations the U.N. agency had opened into weather extremes as climate change unleashes unrivalled storms and heatwaves.
