Posted on 25 December 2016 by John Hartz

Merry Christmas!

Original cartoon by John Cook

Story of the Week...

Arctic heatwave could break records

Temperatures at the North Pole could be up to 20 degrees higher than average this Christmas Eve, in what scientists say is a record-breaking heatwave.

Climate scientists say these unseasonably warm weather patterns in the Arctic region are directly linked to man-made climate change.

Temperatures throughout November and December were 5C higher than average.

It follows a summer during which Arctic sea ice reached the second-lowest extent ever recorded by satellites.

Arctic sea ice extent is monitored and measured by satellite imaging

Dr Friederike Otto, a senior researcher at Oxford's Environmental Change Institute told BBC News that in pre-industrial times "a heatwave like this would have been extremely rare - we would expect it to occur about every 1,000 years".

Dr Otto added that scientists are "very confident" that the weather patterns were linked to anthropogenic climate change.

"We have used several different climate modelling approaches and observations," she told BBC News.

Arctic heatwave could break records by Victoria Gill, BBC News, Dec 24, 2016

SkS Highlights...

Russian email hackers keep playing us for fools by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%) has generated quite a bit of chatter on its comment thread. If you have not already done so, check out the article and take part in the lively conversation. 

Toon of the Week...

Coming Soon on SkS...

• Skeptical Science at AGU 2016 (Baerbel, John Cook, Dana)
• Facts matter, and on climate change, Trump's picks get them wrong (Dana)
• Record-breaking Arctic warmth ‘extremely unlikely’ without climate change (Roz Pidcock)
• Guest Post (John Abraham)
• What could the rest of the world do if Trump pulls the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change? (Henrik Selen, Adil Najam)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #53 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Waming Digest #53 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week...

Climate Feedback Reviews...

Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review the newspaper article, Arctic ice melt ‘already affecting weather patterns where you live right now' by Damien Carrington, Guardian, Dec 19, 2016.  Six scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be ‘neutral’ to ‘high’.

Click here to access the detailed review. 

SkS Week in Review... 

• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #52 by John Hartz
• Infographic: climate change and 2015’s year of wild weather by Andrew King (The Conversation AU)
• Russian email hackers keep playing us for fools by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%)
• Trump questionnaire recalls dark history of ideology-driven science by Paul N Edwards (The Conversation US)
• Republicans and Democrats alike want more clean energy by John Abraham (Climate Consensus - the 97%)
• The Perfect Tide: Sea Level and the Future of South Florida by greenman3610 (Peter Scinclair video) 
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #51 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus...

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