⚡ Lightning strikes near the geographic North Pole are raising troubling questions about our changing climate. This was evident in August 2019, when atmospheric conditions aligned in a way few could have imagined.

The researchers discovered 342 lightning strikes, with 122 in a single storm that passed over the ice and reached within about 43 kilometers of the North Pole.

Jianqiu Zheng and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China analyzed the event and found that it was associated with an unusual influx of warm air. (Jordan Joseph, more on earth.com)