This Spring Siberia Has Been Hotter Than Washington, DC

Siberians at the BEACH on May 25 2020! Cr: Moscow Times

When you think of Siberia, you think of frozen northern lands, covered with snow. This springtime, like the last several years, that's simply not the case. In fact, it's been warmer, well, hotter than Washington, D.C. Why? Climate change appears to be the culprit- pushing Arctic High pressure and colder air on the side of the globe where North America lies, thus bringing warmer air up from the tropics toward Siberia. I've seen that happen over the last 3 or 4 spring times, so it seems to have become a consistent pattern.
   On May 25, 2020, the Moscow Times published a story about the heatwave with Siberians at a BEACH! That story is below as is the story about it from the Washington Post about the 2020 Springtime:

Parts of Siberia are hotter than Washington, with temperatures nearly 40 degrees above average

Snow cover is disappearing, sea ice is melting and fires, including possible ‘zombie’ blazes, are raging.


By Andrew Freedman and Matthew Cappucci
Washington Post May 22
Siberia is in the throes of a heat wave that would be considered warm even by the standards of those living outside the Arctic Circle.

In Washington, for example, the temperature has been stuck in the 60s all week, reaching a maximum of 73 degrees Thursday. Yet several stations in North Central Siberia, including areas near or above the Arctic Circle, are seeing temperatures climb well into the 80s.

 January to April temperature departures from average, showing the most significant temperature anomalies across Russia, including Siberia. (Berkeley Earth)

On Friday, the town of Khatanga, Siberia, located well north of the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 78 degrees, some 46 degrees above normal. The typical maximum temperature for the day at that location is 32 degrees. The town obliterated its previous record high for the date of 54 by some 24 degrees and its monthly record of 68 by about 10 degrees.

The Siberian warmth in May is not a fluke event, either; instead, it’s been a consistent feature since the winter. Temperature departures from average in Europe and Asia have helped push global average surface temperatures to record highs this year, and on global temperature maps, these regions stand out as splotches of crimson red.

MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/05/22/siberia-heat-wave/

Moscow Times: Siberia in Midst of Freak Heat Wave

MOSCOW TIMES May 25, 2020 

Western Siberia is experiencing abnormally high May temperatures, with some areas above the Arctic Circle breaking record-highs, The Siberian Times and The Washington Post reported last week.

Weather experts say temperatures in the region have been between 3 degrees Celsius and 6 degrees Celsius above average since January. The trend picks up from 2019, which forecasters declared the hottest year on record in Russia.

“That’s not only a new record anomaly for Russia. That’s the largest January to April anomaly ever seen in any country’s national average,” Robert Rohde of the nonprofit climate research group Berkeley Earth said in a tweet.

Russia’s third most populous city of Novosibirsk, another Siberian city, Krasnoyarsk, as well as the nearby regions of Omsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo and the Altai mountains saw record-breaking temperatures of between 30 degrees Celsius and 35 degrees Celsius in May, The Siberian Times reported last Tuesday.

At least one Siberian town above the Arctic Circle, Khatanga, broke its previous single-day record of 12 degrees Celsius for May 23 when the temperature hit 25.4 last Saturday.

“This heat wave occurs mostly at the area which has been anomalously warm during the whole 2020,” Finnish researcher Mika Rantanen told The Washington Post.

A temperature map Rantanen posted Thursday showed swaths of Western Siberia in the high 20s and low 30s.

Siberia  is in a record Spring heatwaveCredit: Da.ria Krasnoyarsk

“I’m Siberian-born and lived here for 60 years, I don’t remember a single spring like this,” The Siberian Times quoted journalist Sergei Zubchuk as saying.

“There was no spring, no weeks-long gentle rise of temperature. Somebody just clicked a ‘hot air’ switch on at the end of April, and summer began,” Zubchuk said.

The heat wave broke several natural cycles, The Siberian Times wrote, including river ice breaking, plants and trees blooming, and insects waking up earlier than usual.

The Siberian warmth is having an effect on Arctic ecosystems, The Washington Post reported, including on Siberian wildfires raging earlier than usual, declining snow cover and record-low sea ice.