December 30, 2015
from TheDailySheeple Website


 

The storms that devastated the central United States over the Christmas holidays causing tornadoes and leaving scores of people dead has shifted to the North Pole where meteorologists say it is continuing to wreak havoc.

Temperatures at the North Pole, which are usually about 20° below zero at this time of year, have spiked as much as 50 degrees in the last 24 hours creating what scientists call a "bomb cyclogenesis."

The Washington Post reports:

From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, a mind-boggling pressure drop was recorded in Iceland: 54 millibars in just 18 hours.

 

This triples the criteria for "bomb" cyclogenesis, which meteorologists use to describe a rapidly intensifying mid-latitude storm. A "bomb" cyclone is defined as dropping one millibar per hour for 24 hours.

"Consider the average winter temperature there is around 20 degrees below zero," wrote the Capital Weather Gang's Jason Samenow on Monday.

A temperature around the freezing mark signifies a departure from normal of over 50 degrees, and close to typical mid-summer temperatures in this region.

 

In other words, the area around the North Pole was about as warm as Chicago on Wednesday, and quite a few degrees warmer than much of the Midwest.

The major shift in weather in the North Pole will no doubt lead climate change advocates to cite global warming as the cause.

But before we make any rash decisions like forcing new climate change legislation on the global public or implementing Al Gore's carbon tax credit schemes on businesses who literally stand to lose trillions of dollars because of the new fees, let's put the temperature changes into perspective.

According to NOAA researchers, while the North Pole storm is outside of the norm, it is not unprecedented:

NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center said the storm's minimum pressure dropped to 928 millibars around 1am Eastern time, which likely places it in the top five strongest storms on record in this region.

"According to the center's records, the all-time strongest storm in this area occurred on Dec. 15, 1986, and that had a minimum central pressure of 900 millibars," Mashable's Andrew Freedman reported on Tuesday.

 

"The second-strongest storm occurred in January 1993, with a pressure of 916 millibars."

Freak Storm Pushes North Pole...

50° Above Normal to Melting Point
by Angela Fritz
December 30, 2015

from WashingtonPost Website
 

This storm in the far North Atlantic is the same storm that caused two tornado outbreaks and widespread flooding in the United States.

Now, it's pushing temperatures at the North Pole well above average. (see here)

This story has been updated to include buoy measurements that confirm the North Pole temperature climbed above 32 degrees on Wednesday.

A powerful winter cyclone - the same storm that led to two tornado outbreaks in the United States and disastrous river flooding - has driven the North Pole to the freezing point this week, 50 degrees above average for this time of year.

From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, a mind-boggling pressure drop was recorded in Iceland: 54 millibars in just 18 hours.

This triples the criteria for "bomb" cyclogenesis, which meteorologists use to describe a rapidly intensifying mid-latitude storm. A "bomb" cyclone is defined as dropping one millibar per hour for 24 hours.

NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center said the storm's minimum pressure dropped to 928 millibars around 1 am Eastern time, which likely places it in the top five strongest storms on record in this region.

"According to the center's records, the all-time strongest storm in this area occurred on Dec. 15, 1986, and that had a minimum central pressure of 900 millibars," Mashable's Andrew Freedman reported on Tuesday.

 

"The second-strongest storm occurred in January 1993, with a pressure of 916 millibars."

Temperatures in the Arctic Circle

were hovering around 32 degrees on Wednesday morning,

using data from the GFS model.

(weatherbell.com)
 

As this storm churns north, it's forcing warm air into the Arctic Circle.

Over the North Sea, sustained winds from the south are blasting at 70 mph, and gusting to well above 100 mph, drawing heat from south to north.

Although there are no permanent weather stations at the North Pole (or really anywhere in the Arctic Ocean), we can use weather forecast models, which ingest data from satellites and surrounding surface observations, to estimate conditions at Earth's most northern location.

On Wednesday morning, temperatures over a vast area around North Pole were somewhere between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and for at least a brief moment, surpassed the 32-degree threshold at exactly 90 degrees North, according to data from the GFS forecast model.

Data from the International Arctic Buoy Program confirms that temperatures very close to the North Pole surpassed the melting point on Wednesday.

A buoy (WMO ID Buoy 6400476) at a latitude of 87.45 degrees North hit a high temperature of 0.7 degrees Celsius - or 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
 

"Consider the average winter temperature there is around 20 degrees below zero," wrote the Capital Weather Gang's Jason Samenow on Monday.

A temperature around the freezing mark signifies a departure from normal of over 50 degrees, and close to typical mid-summer temperatures in this region.

In other words, the area around the North Pole was about as warm as Chicago on Wednesday, and quite a few degrees warmer than much of the Midwest.

How El Niño will affect weather conditions this year

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the El Niño of 2015-2016 is shaping up to be one of the strongest in this past century. Here are the types of weather we can expect around the world due to this year's El Niño.

(World Meteorological Organization/YouTube)
 

Meanwhile in habitable areas around the North Atlantic, winds are howling and waves are rocking the coastline.

In Britain, a week of excessive rainfall has pushed rivers and streams well beyond their banks, stranding vehicles and buckling bridges. In a blog post on Monday, the U.K. Met office said that December has been a record-breaking month for rainfall in parts of the United Kingdom.

A Christmas weekend storm brought up to 8 inches of addition rainfall on saturated soil.

The Met Office listed just a small portion of the December records that were set this weekend, in some cases blowing away the previous December records by 10 inches.

Massive waves and floods hit the U.K.

Ireland, Scotland and England are getting slammed by Storm Frank as it barrels into Europe. Social media users captured what the heavy rain and floods look like from windows, cars and backyards. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)