North Pole surges above freezing in the dead of winter, stunning scientists | Hacker News Reader

North Pole surges above freezing in the dead of winter, stunning scientists

washingtonpost.com

31 pointsSirLJ8 comments

In case WaPo won't show you the page, here is the same story from the Weather Network:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/arctic-storm...

why does this website say that it is -24? https://www.yr.no/place/North_Pole/Other/North_Pole/

Forecast. By modelling, not by measuring - i.e. "this is what our model says is most likely to happen"; apparently the weather is not very predictable ATM.

I don't understand. Is the temperature now at the north pole above freezing, if so where can I see the temperature? Is WaPo forecasting that the temperature will be above freezing? According to the article:

> While there are no direct measurements of temperature there, Zack Labe, a climate scientist working on his PhD at the University of California at Irvine, confirmed that several independent analyses showed “it was very close to freezing,”

What does that mean? Do they not have a device measuring the temperature at the north pole at all times?

It's a frozen (or not) ice at sea, one the most remote places on Earth. How would you suggest such device to function? (Could be possibly solved, but it's surprisingly nontrivial.) South pole is at least somewhat stable; but you can buy a cruise to the North pole on an icebreaker.

I guess my knowledge of the north pole is really bad. When I look at google maps or any other globe, I see that the North Pole, similarly to the south pole, is full of ice. Are you saying that that is not the case? Are there no scientific stations there?

Note the map at right (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole - while the South Pole is on the Antarctic continent, it's all floating ice up north, even though it's usually several meters thick. While historically the arctic polar expeditions used sleds, nowadays people mostly sail there - either in submarines, or on icebreakers.

(Apparently Russians tend to float a temporary station nearby, but no permanent bases - as the ice is always moving: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneo )

Thanks for the information

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