ARCTIC temperatures 20 degrees higher than usual; wild weather bashing Britain and possible snow flurries in New York despite it being uncommonly warm. What is going on with the world’s weather?

In the past few weeks, the globe has experienced some it’s most unusual fluctuations, from almost an entire lack of snow at Christmas anywhere in the world to blizzards days later, floods across much of the UK and 280km/h tornadoes in Texas killing 11 in one day alone.

Now, experts are warning of a ‘bomb cyclone’ forming in the north Atlantic bringing more misery to the UK which is already reeling from a projected $10bn clean up cost from floods on Boxing Day.

One of the main culprits is El Niño which is pushing warmer air from the Pacific across the continental US and up to the North Pole bringing higher than usual temperatures and incessant rain. In the US a biting winter storm also arrived bringing southern states snow and freezing temperatures to which, up until now, had been notable only by their absence.

The low pressure system which brought tornadoes to Dallas earlier this week is now heading toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Once there, it will likely smash into an existing storm centred on Iceland, the effect of which could be 120mm of rain across Scotland and Northern England.

“Big Icelandic storms are common in winter, but this one may rank among the strongest and will draw northward an incredible surge of warmth pushing temperatures at the North Pole up to 70 degrees Farenheit (~21 Celsius) above normal. This is mind-boggling,” said James Samenow, the Washington Post’s weather editor.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s criteria of a ‘bomb cyclone’ is a system with reduction in pressure of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. As the advancing storm’s pressure is predicted to dive by more than 50 millibars it could more than meet this target.

This could in turn spell disaster for the UK which is now bracing for ‘Storm Frank’ potentially bringing up to 120mm of rain to Northern England and Scotland.

Photo of a tornado taken from the Hilton Hotel on Lake Ray Hubbard from a FOX4 viewer. pic.twitter.com/8LVWTNoFIA — FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) December 27, 2015

The UK’s Meteorological Office said December had been Britain’s mildest and wettest on record with the Welsh mountains receiving about 200mm of rainfall on Boxing Day.

Will Lang, a UK meteorologist, said the weather was “particularly unsettled” at the moment.

“We expect stormy conditions to return midweek [with] gales on Tuesday and heavy rain on Wednesday, as a rapidly deepening area of low pressure, Storm Frank, passes to the northwest of the UK, “ reported the UK’s Telegraph.

The warm air sucked up from the Pacific could see Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik sporting similar temperatures to El Paso on the US/Mexico border. While, the north pole, often shivering in total winter darkness with temperatures 20°C below freezing, could creep above freezing tomorrow.

In New York, where temperatures usually hover around zero in December but are currently reaching into double digits at the height of the day, there were warnings of possible snow flurries.

“We’re just being ready because we’re anticipating some slush in the morning,” said Kathy Dawkins, a spokeswoman for the Sanitation Department told the New York Post. “We just want to be ahead of the game. With weather, you never know.”

El Niño occurs irregularly in the eastern tropical Pacific every two to seven years and sees warmer waters affect weather patterns across the globe.

“North America tends to get really cold winters when high pressure builds up but in El Niño that doesn’t happen so much. Typically, the El Niño influence brings stronger winds across the American continent and that brings milder air and moisture,” Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Blair Trewin told news.com.au last week.

Europe’s weather was harder to predict and was dependent on a weather pattern called the Arctic Oscillation, said Mr Trewin. “You see a lot of variability and part of that is related to the Arctic Oscillation. Some years you get persistent, very low pressure in the North Atlantic and high pressure south west of the continent and this directs strong westerly winds onto Europe and with it milder temperatures.

“Whereas in the other phase, and this is what happened in a few recent winters, you see high pressure over the north Atlantic which brings cold air and snow from Russia.”

The only certainty is that for the next few weeks, the unsettled conditions are set to continue.