How the Arctic Circle just eclipsed 100 degrees

Temperatures hit triple digits at a Russian town in the Arctic Circle on Saturday, either breaking or nearly breaking the hottest temperature on record in this polar realm. Preliminary observations, spotted by French meteorologist Etienne Kapikian, show the heat reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk (which would eclipse an Arctic Circle record set over a century ago, in Alaska). That's over 30 degrees warmer than usual for Verkhoyansk in June. In the relentlessly warming 21st century, it's increasingly common for heat records to be broken. High temperature records today far outpace new low temperature records. Now, the potentially record heat in Siberia has created ideal conditions for robust fires that are releasing bounties of heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere. Read more...More about Science, Arctic, Extreme Weather, Climate Change, and Science