Environment

Russia To Evacuate Arctic Station Over Melting Ice

A Russian drifting Arctic research station is to be evacuated because the ice field around it is melting, the environment ministry in Moscow reports. The ministry has ordered an evacuation plan to be drawn up within three days for North Pole 40 and its staff of 16. It is sending a nuclear-powered icebreaker to help move the station, located near Canada's economic zone.

Arctic ice melted at record speed in 2012, one of the warmest years on record. The research station will be relocated to Bolshevik Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago.

Global Temperature Extremes

The week's hottest temperature was 122.0 degrees Fahrenheit (50.0 degrees Celsius) at Jacobabad, Pakistan.

The week's coldest temperature was minus 102.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 74.8 degrees Celsius) at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Temperatures were tabulated from the more than 10,000 worldwide synoptic weather stations. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization sets the standards for weather observations, and provides a global telecommunications circuit for data distribution.