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Heather’s Weather Whys: 100 degrees in the Arctic Circle

Buffalo has never recorded a temperature in the triple digits, but one town in the Arctic Circle has. It happened back in June.
Credit: WGRZ

In case you missed it, July of 2020 was Buffalo’s hottest month on record. That’s a tough record to beat anywhere, but there’s one town in the Arctic Circle that can actually say that it’s been hotter. 

RELATED: Buffalo’s hottest month on record

On June 20, the temperature soared to an alarming 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Verkhoyansk, Russia. That’s a Siberian town 1,700 miles farther north in latitude than Buffalo, putting it in the Arctic Circle. 

That’s right, somewhere in Siberia beat Buffalo to the century mark, although that’s not a record that any northern city should want.

RELATED: What is the “polar vortex”?

Heat that intense wouldn’t have been possible without decades of warming for Earth as a whole. The Arctic Circle region has been warming three times faster than the rest of the planet. Combine that background warming with a stubborn blocking area of high pressure, and the ingredients were certainly there for the unprecedented heat.

RELATED: Start a conversation with Climate Minute

And in case you’re wondering: yes, if it can get that hot in the Arctic, it can get that hot in Buffalo too. We just have yet to see that.

New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening. 

If you have a weather question for Heather to answer, send it to her at heather.waldman@wgrz.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

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