MURMANSK, January 24. /TASS/. A record of the year average temperature was registered in the Arctic in 2016, as the temperatures level was by 4.2 degrees higher the norm, Boris Birman of the Russian meteorology center, Hydrometcenter of Russia, told TASS on Tuesday.
"The average temperature in the Arctic in 2016 made minus 8.1 degrees, which means it was higher the previous record of 2011 by 0.9 degrees, and 4.2 degrees above the norm," the scientist said. "That was the warmest year registered in the studies, which continue from 1891."
The scientist said the monitoring was in the Earth territories north of 65 degrees north latitude. However, scientists have to use data from meteorology stations at different heights above the sea level, and apply special methods to bring the measurements to data taken at one level.
The biggest temperature differences from the norm were registered in the Barents and Kara Seas - there the temperatures were eight degrees above the norm, and the peaks were registered on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. Warmer temperatures were also in Chukotka, north Canada and above the warm ocean currents east off continents - Gulfstream in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio Current in the Pacific Ocean. The water temperatures in the Arctic region were also higher than the norm. In the Barents and Kara Seas, the Bering Strait and in the Alaska Bay the difference made up to 2.5 degrees.
The average temperatures were higher in the entire northern hemisphere - though by only 1.1 degrees, the expert said.
Higher temperatures remain in the Arctic for several years now, the scientist continued. The previous peak of temperatures was seen in the 1930s-1940s, though at that time it was caused by cyclonic processes and was not that high as the current one. This time, the higher temperatures must have been caused not only by cyclones, but also by anthropogenic factors, he added.