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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRare Lightning Strikes Detected Near the North Pole on Saturday
https://weather.com/news/news/2019-08-11-unusual-lightning-detected-near-north-poleSeveral lightning strikes were detected near the North Pole on Saturday, something rarely seen in that region of the Arctic Ocean.
The lightning flashes were recorded within 300 miles of the North Pole, at 85 degrees north latitude, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. AKDT, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, Alaska. That's about 700 miles north of the Lena River Delta in Siberia.
Lightning does occur each summer north of the Arctic Circle (66.6 degrees north latitude), including occasionally over southern portions of the Arctic Ocean.
It's uncertain how many lightning strikes in history have occurred as far north as Saturday's event, but based on the worldwide lightning climatology map shown below, they are hardly seen in that region of the Arctic.
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I've spent more than a year of my life in the Arctic and Antarctic.
An Old Antarctic Hand told me back in the 1990's "If I see lightening here - we are fucked". Of course this story is about the Arctic.
But still.
We. Are. Fucked.
pbmus
(12,422 posts)revmclaren
(2,531 posts)ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)where erosion is not a problem. A bursting of the coastal property bubble that's been forcing people of normal means out of desirable areas into hot interior plains, closing beauty off for the few, would imo not be a bad thing at all, though I have my doubts about how far values will fall in the kind of markets where people can afford to self insure and just write checks to replace.
Thanks for this, Jpak. I'm not sure I ever knew lightening was very rare there. And now this.
pansypoo53219
(20,997 posts)yes. we are doomed. but population was gonna do it too.
lapfog_1
(29,226 posts)Yellowstone eruption could be the "cure" that is worse than the "disease".
roamer65
(36,747 posts)During the Cretaceous, due to excessive volcanic activity, the temperature of the planet was about 4C higher than normal. There were no polar icecaps. CO2 was about 5 times as high as present day.
Of course, if most of the human population is gone then CO2 levels stop rising.