Temperature hits 100 F degrees in Arctic Russian town
A Siberian town with the world’s widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires
By
The Associated Press
June 21, 2020, 1:30 PM
1 min read
MOSCOW -- A Siberian town with the world's widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires.
The temperature in Verkhoyansk hit 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 F) on Saturday, according to Pogoda i Klimat, a website that compiles Russian meteorological data.
The town is located above the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic, about 4,660 kilometers (2,900 miles) northeast of Moscow.
The town of about 1,300 residents is recognized by the Guinness World Records for the most extreme temperature range, with a low of minus-68 degrees C (minus-90 F) and a previous high of 37.2 C (98.96 F..)
More:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/temperature-hits-100-degrees-arctic-russian-town-71370623
Images of Verkhoyansk, Siberia:
https://tinyurl.com/yb3xyvzx
Climate Change Just Opened a 'Gateway to the Underworld' in Siberia
In the heart of Siberia’s boreal forest gapes a monstrous chasm local Yakutians call a "gateway to the underworld."
By Sarah Emerson
Jun 14 2016, 10:16am
VIEW OF THE BATAGAIKA CRATER, VERKHOYANSK, SIBERIA. IMAGE: GOOGLE EARTH
In the heart of Siberia's boreal forest gapes a monstrous chasm local Yakutians call a "gateway to the underworld," connecting this life to the next.
The ominous crater, which looms a mile long and reaches depths of nearly 400 feet, appeared without warning some 25 years ago. According to geological surveys, it's been growing at an annual rate of more than 60 feet. Yet, outside of Batagai, a rural town in the Sakha Republic's Verkhoyansk district, little is known about this natural phenomenon.
AERIAL VIEW OF THE BATAGAIKA CRATER. IMAGE: RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF APPLIED ECOLOGY OF THE NORTH/ALEXANDER GABYSHEV
Based on what we do understand, the Batagaika crater probably isn't an entrance to hell. But it is likely a harbinger of something dreadful to come. And, predictably, climate change has a whole lot to do with it.
Sometime during the early 1990s, an industrial facility allegedly cleared a parcel of forest, not knowing that eviscerating the tree stand would kick off a catastrophic geologic event. As climate change worsened around the globe, unprecedented heat waves rippled across Yakutia—one of the coldest places on Earth—melting the exposed layers of glacial ice that had not been seen for up to 200,000 years. Then, one day, the land began to buckle and slump.
More:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qkj3yd/climate-change-just-opened-a-gateway-to-the-underworld-in-siberia
