Big Iceland storm squeezes warmth into North Pole

The pressure gradient between a very strong (928 mb) low pressure system over Iceland and a very strong high pressure system (~1046 mb) over Europe is helping to squeeze warm air all the way up to the North Pole today (or pretty close, into the Arctic circle anyway).

As a result, temperatures are above freezing there (which is 50 to 70 degrees above normal according to Capital Weather Gang). There are no weather stations up there, of course, so we are depending on satellite and model guesses (shown above) to estimate what's happening. Some meteorologists dispute that it's really "warm" there today at all). Here's what the pressure field looks like:

Winds have gusted to 94 mph at one of Norway's buoys:

Waves have only been measured in the 20- to 30-foot range by buoys in a similar area, but in places where there are no buoys, satellite estimates have tagged waves as high as 55.26 feet.