In the Media.

The North Pole. 

Dixon,C.   (2008). The North Pole - April 2008. Photograph. At: Woodborough: Woodborough Farmhouse. http://www.woodboro.co.uk/NorthPole.php

Just as an interesting side note, there have been some higher than normal temperatures seen in the Arctic at the end of December 2015.  A news article published by CBC News on 31^st December 2015 and updated on 4^th January 2015 reports that a weather anomaly has caused temperatures in the region to rise to higher than normal for the time of year.  The report goes on to say that fluctuations in temperatures of between -13 C° to -43 C° would not be uncommon for the region, but that what is uncommon is the temperatures for the region reaching 3 C° to 4 C°.  Meteorologist, Kirk Torneby of Environment Canada was quoted as saying;

“That strong pull of warm air is starting to shut off, I think the warmest temperatures are starting to fizzle out”.

Unfortunately there are no weather station in the North Pole and so temperature predictions are problematic.  But temperature readings are taken by buoys in the Arctic sea ice as well as High Arctic observation stations. 

This post is more of an ‘FYI’ than anything else.  I share mainly to show that even over very small time scales temperature can vary greatly, it also, to me serves to highlight quite nicely how the planets systems do not act individually of each other. I am thinking here specifically of Lovelock's Gaia Theory of course, although his theory has not gone unquestioned, I personally feel it provides a very useful way of considering the planetary systems.

So what is to blame for this anomaly you may ask?  Well the most likely explanation offered by the new report is the El Niño event that is currently underway. 

Reference;

Barton, K.   (2015). Weather anomaly pushing North Pole temperatures above 0 C. [online]. CBC News. Available from: <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/weather-anomaly-north-pole-1.3385175>. [Accessed 06th January 2015].