Climate of The Arctic - Temperature

Temperature

The Arctic is often perceived as a region stuck in a permanent deep freeze. While much of the region does experience very low temperatures, there is considerable variability with both location and season. Winter temperatures average below freezing over all of the Arctic except for small regions in the southern Norwegian and Bering Seas, which remain ice free throughout the winter. Average temperatures in summer are above freezing over all regions except the central Arctic Basin, where sea ice survives through the summer, and interior Greenland.

The maps at right show the average temperature over the Arctic in January and July, generally the coldest and warmest months. These maps were made with data from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis, which incorporates available data into a computer model to create a consistent global data set. Neither the models nor the data are perfect, so these maps may differ from other estimates of surface temperatures; in particular, most Arctic climatologies show temperatures over the central Arctic Ocean in July averaging just below freezing, a few degrees lower than these maps show (Serreze and Barry, 2005; USSR, 1985; CIA, 1978). An earlier climatology of temperatures in the Arctic, based entirely on available data, is shown in this map from the CIA Polar Regions Atlas (1978).

Before discussing temperatures across the Arctic, it is worth noting that the coldest location in the Northern Hemisphere is not in the Arctic, but rather in the interior of Russia's Far East, in the upper-right quadrant of the maps. This is due to the region's continental climate, far from the moderating influence of the ocean, and to the valleys in the region that can trap cold, dense air and create strong temperature inversions, where the temperature increases, rather than decreases, with height (Serreze and Barry, 2005). The lowest officially recorded temperature in the Northern Hemisphere is −67.3 °C (−93.6 °F) in 1892 in Verkhoyansk. This region is not part of the Arctic because its continental climate also allows it to have warm summers, with an average July temperature of 15 °C (59 °F) (see the climate chart for Verkhoyansk on the Russian Wikipedia, Верхоянск, or the Google-translated version here). In the figure below showing station climatologies, the plot for Yakutsk is representative of this part of the Far East; Yakutsk has a slightly less extreme climate than Verkhoyansk.