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ARTICLE · 18 DECEMBER 2017

The North Slope Is Really, Really, Getting Warmer. Drill, Baby, Drill (Video)

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The Washington Post reported this week that Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), has gotten so warm, so fast, that NOAA's computers can't even believe it.

United StatesEnvironment
Seth Jaffe
Seth Jaffe
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The Washington Post reported this week that Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), has gotten so warm, so fast, that NOAA's computers can't even believe it.  The data for Utqiagvik (that's hard to type!) were so high that the computers determined it must be anomalous and pulled all of the data from Utqiagvik from the NOAA monthly climate report.  Only when scientists realized that Utqiagvik was completely missing from the report did they notice what had happened.

How hot does it have to get to get bounced by the computer?  How about average October temperatures 7.8 degrees warmer than in 2000?  Average November temperatures 6.9 degrees warmer than in 2000?  Likely culprit?  Melting sea ice means that less sunlight is reflected.  That's one nasty negative feedback loop.

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