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.
> 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?
(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 )