Lightning struck near the North Pole 48 times on Saturday, with an astonishing 1,000 discharges detected north of 80 degrees. Another extreme event in the context of an extreme Arctic melt season
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Can you quantify how rare this occurrence is? Is it something we've actually observed from data in the past?
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Exactly. If this is something that has never been recorded that is profound. If it happens once a decade it is an interesting data point.
Either way, it is a bit alarming and one additional data point that could point to more evidence of climate change.
The story has context as we requested historical data from . This much lightning that far North is rare is the best we can say right now, data archive goes back to 2012. It's in keeping with warmer ocean, atmosphere with more moisture this year. cc