The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

The North Pole is an insane 36 degrees warmer than normal as winter descends

November 17, 2016 at 1:41 p.m. EST

This story has been updated.

Political people in the United States are watching the chaos in Washington in the moment. But some people in the science community are watching the chaos somewhere else — the Arctic.

It’s polar night there now — the sun isn’t rising in much of the Arctic. That’s when the Arctic is supposed to get super-cold, when the sea ice that covers the vast Arctic Ocean is supposed to grow and thicken.