Arctic temperature departures from average for 21 June 2020, showing extreme temperatures in Siberia and parts of Canada. The northeastern Siberian town of Verkhoyansk is likely to have set a record for the highest temperature documented in the Arctic Circle, with a reading of 100.4 degrees (38 Celsius) recorded Saturday, 20 June 2020. Graphic: Climate Reanalyzer
Arctic temperature departures from average for 21 June 2020, showing extreme temperatures in Siberia and parts of Canada. The northeastern Siberian town of Verkhoyansk is likely to have set a record for the highest temperature documented in the Arctic Circle, with a reading of 100.4 degrees (38 Celsius) recorded Saturday, 20 June 2020. Graphic: Climate Reanalyzer

By Andrew Freedman
21 June 2020

(The Washington Post) – A northeastern Siberian town is likely to have set a record for the highest temperature documented in the Arctic Circle, with a reading of 100.4 degrees (38 Celsius) recorded Saturday in Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic Circle and about 3,000 miles east of Moscow. Records at that location have been kept since 1885.

If verified, this would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed, and the highest temperature on record in the Arctic, a region that is warming at more than twice the rate of the rest of the globe.

On Sunday, the same location recorded a high temperature of 95.3 degrees (35.2 Celsius), showing the Saturday reading was not an anomaly. The average June high temperature in Verkhoyansk is just 68 degrees (20 Celsius).

Global temperature departures from average during January through May 2020, compared with the 1951-1980 average. Graphic: Berkeley Earth
Global temperature departures from average during January through May 2020, compared with the 1951-1980 average. Graphic: Berkeley Earth

Verkhoyansk is located at 67.5 degrees north latitude, whereas the Arctic Circle begins at 66.5 degrees.

The town of about 1,300 is located farther north than Fairbanks, Alaska, and is known for having an unusually wide temperature range. During the winter, Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest spots in the world, with temperatures frequently dipping well below minus-50 degrees.

Temperatures in Chersky, about 700 miles to the northeast of Verkhoyansk, reached 86 degrees (30 Celsius) in the past week, which is also unusual and caused by the large area of high pressure, or heat dome, that remains parked over it. [more]

Arctic temperature departures from average for 21 June 2020 Climate Reanalyzer