I’m really surprised that the lightning strikes 300 miles from the North Pole yesterday did not cause more discussion on the forum.
The scientists on climate Twitter could not find any instance of lightning so far north.
It was a strange, and in my opinion important, event. The arctic is changing!
This is from work, so no one has seen the following pictures... The IFS 0.125° for the 11th at 00Z, wet bulb potential temperature at 850 hPa, vorticity at 850 hPa (above 16, step 4), SLP, thickness 500 (Z500-Z100). There is a front with a ribbon of vorticity to the North, stretching from the low over Barents to the Chucki sea, with low and mid level clouds, as visible from sat pictures. But associated with the low over Laptev, to the west of the head of the low, there is a maximum of vorticity. Sounding show mid level instability from ~800 hPa to ~250hPa with ~100 to ~200 J/Kg. Marginal, be with good forcings enough for TS.
As Rod said, this is significant.
For one part, this is an illustration of the evolving Arctic. Again, CBs were probably not directly linked to the crazy warm SST, but it is definitively showing that Arctic is warming. The warm air advection was extreme, and was able to carry a potentialy instable airmass up to 85°N. Mid level CBs at the head of a thermal wave are
not a thing of the Arctic, up to today...
For the other part, this also means that cyclogenesis is on the move on the Arctic. This low had some characteristics of a warm seclusion with a slight max of temperature, TA and wind around 850 hPa - 900 hPa. Cold, pure baroclinic process are loosing a bit of grip and now warm core process and moist instability is starting to play a role. For the second point, it was of course more evident with the low over Beaufort at the start of the month for example. Here a lone CB will not make any meaningfull difference of course. But next year it could be 10 CBs, then etc... And on the end it will change the cyclogenesis process. It could also be noted that Laptev sea being shallow, it could quickly warm without sea ice. With Siberia snow free earlier and earlier, this could mean a quick increases of moist instability with a warming Arctic.