Record-breaking Siberian heatwave 'result of human-caused climate change'

A record-breaking heatwave which hit Siberia earlier this year, would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

An international team of climate scientists, led by the Met Office, found that between January and June this year, temperatures were more than 5C above average in Russia's regions.

The small Russian town of Verkhoyansk, smashed records on 20 June when they recorded a temperature of 38C, the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic circle.

Climate scientists found that without human-caused climate change, these kinds of record average temperatures were only likely to happen less than once every 80,000 years.

The scientists also said that a record event like this would be "almost impossible" had the World not been warmed by greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers used special computer programmes to compare the climate as it is today, with the climate as it would have been without human influence, to see how different weather events might have been.

They described these findings as "unequivocal evidence of the impact of climate change on the planet".

It might seem pretty far away, but what happens in the Arctic, has a huge impact on our weather here in the UK.

Four out of the six main weather systems that shape the UK's weather are influenced by the climate conditions in the Arctic, said Dr Katharine Hendry of Bristol University.

This is down to something called the jet-stream, a huge ribbon of fast moving-air which helps to move weather systems around the globe.

Climate scientists are worried that the Arctic might be warming twice as fast compared to the rest of the world.

As a result of the jet-stream, any climate problem that affects the Arctic, will have an impact on the rest of the world too.