5 reasons the Arctic’s extremely warm winter should alarm you

You can see dramatic climate change impacts even in the dead of Arctic winter.

By Brian Resnick@B_resnickbrian@vox.com  Mar 15, 2018, 10:50am EDT

Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland is just about the northernmost piece of land on planet Earth. It’s located just 400 miles south of the North pole, on Greenland’s craggy, desolate North Shore. This is a place so far north that the sun doesn’t rise for most of the winter months.

In February, in the dark of winter, Cape Morris Jesup’s weather station recorded nearly 60 hours of temperatures above freezing — a new record. On February 23, the temperature reached a high of 43 degrees Fahrenheit.

Think of it like this: On February 23, you could be standing on the northernmost bit of land in the entire world, in darkness, in shorts and a T-shirt. That you wouldn’t instantly die is astounding because the cape’s temperatures are usually closer to minus 30 degrees in February.

Melting permafrost in the Arctic is unlocking diseases and warping the landscape
It’s often said: On this warming planet, nowhere is changing faster than the Arctic. But this winter is providing stunning new evidence of a region in extraordinary, worrying flux. It’s also a hint of the future to come: An Arctic ocean that’s not permanently frozen and all the disastrous consequences that come with that.

Here are five of the most alarming observations of the Arctic from the beginning of this year.

1) It was the warmest Arctic winter on record

2) There’s new evidence that weird weather in the Arctic impacts our weather

3) There were record-low amounts of ice, continuing a decades-long downward trend

4) Scientists saw unsettling signs that the remaining ice is getting thinner and less stable

5) An “ice-free Arctic” could come within decades

Read more (details and charts)
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/3/15/17099686/arctic-warm-winter-sea-ice-melting-facts