The temperature in the Fairbanks, Alaska suburb of North Pole earlier today was apparently in the low-40s Fahrenheit.
It was then that Alexandra Sifferlin at Time.com reported the Alaska town's temperature as if it came from the North Pole. The only current evidence of Sifferlin's original grievous error at Time.com is a deliberately vague correction at the bottom of her post telling readers that "This article originally misidentified a temperature reading as belonging to the North Pole." Fortunately, ever-alert blogger Patterico excerpted the post as originally written (the link to North Pole, Alaska's conditions at Weather.com is in the original):
North Pole Unfrozen as Temperature Soars
Stormy weather in the North Atlantic has brought balmy weather to the world’s northernmost point.
The temperature in the North Pole hit 42 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday morning, which Discovery News says is 50 degrees higher than average for this time of year. Storms over Iceland and Greenland, fairly common in winter, are pushing warmer air to the Arctic.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue was also on the alert, and tweeted evidence of what Time.com originally had:
For those who are wondering:
- The temperature at the earth's North Pole briefly topped the freezing point, but not for long. Early this afternoon, Maue tweeted: "Hope you enjoyed the North Pole heat-wave -- now back to normal programming down to -25°F ... warm up next week."
- The temperature at earth's North Pole appears to have topped out at about 34ªF (1ªC). The UK Telegraph cites Maue while indicating, in its words, that "some datasets suggested temperatures hit 0.7C at the North Pole on Wednesday, although there was a large range of uncertainty."
- This event is not unprecedented. Time.com's revised post indicates that "There have reportedly only been three other times since 1948 that temperatures in the North Pole have hit or risen above freezing in December."
Perhaps Alexandra Sifferlin, who describes herself as Time.com's "health writer," thought that that she had stumbled upon a story which might advance her career and please her human-caused global warming-believing superiors. If so, not-so-nice try, epic fail.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
