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Thunderhead on central plateau of Baffin Island, Canadian Arctic
A thunderhead on the central plateau of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic that formed north of the Barnes Ice Cap. Scientists from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, who were in the area working on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported study at the time of the storm, said it produced cloud-to-ground lightning strikes and extensive thunder. Weather such as this was unheard of 50 years ago, when researchers from the institute spent four years in the same area, and are due to the increase in summer temperatures in those intervening years to the point that thunder and lightning are now a frequent occurrence. The NSF research showed current warming, measured on a centennial scale, exceeds any century in at least 40,000 years and most likely 120,000 years. The appearance of thunderheads is consistent with this warming. [Research supported by NSF grant PLR 12-04096.] (Date image taken: July 2009; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Oct. 4, 2016)
Credit: Gifford Miller, INSTAAR, University of Colorado Boulder
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