Temperatures at the North Pole have risen above freezing, 20 degrees above the mid-winter norm and the latest abnormality in a season of extreme weather events.

Canadian weather authorities blamed the temperature spike on the freak depression which has already brought record Christmas temperatures to North America and lashed Britain with winds and floods.

The deep low pressure area is currently looming over Iceland and churning up hurricane-force 75-knot winds and nine-metre waves in the north Atlantic while dragging warm air northwards.

"It's a very violent and extremely powerful depression, so it's not surprising that hot temperatures have been pushed so far north," Canadian Government meteorologist Nathalie Hasell said.

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"This deep depression has pushed hot air as far as the North Pole, where temperatures are at least 20 degrees above normal, at around freezing point, between zero and 2 degrees Celsius," she said.

US scientists from the North Pole Environmental Observatory told AFP news agency that the temperatures had climbed suddenly.

An Arctic monitoring point 300 kilometres from the Pole that had been recording -37C on Monday had shot up to -8C by Wednesday, senior researcher James Morison said.

The polar region is the area of the world that has seen the most profound effects of climate change in recent decades.

Average year-round temperatures in the Arctic are 3C higher than they were in the pre-industrial era, snowfall is heavier, winds are stronger and the ice sheet has been shrinking for 30 years.

Ms Hasell said that Canada had not kept complete records of North Pole weather but that it was nonetheless "bizarre" to see such high temperatures on the ice pack in the middle of its long night.

After tormenting the North Atlantic, the depression is expected to head towards Russia's Siberia, where the inhabitants can expect a heatwave of sorts.

Baffin Island, better known for its snow and ice, experienced unheard of rainfall in December, according to David Phillips of Canada's Environment Ministry.

"It's doubtless the El Nino effect, venturing further north," he said, referring to the tropical Pacific weather phenomenon that reoccurs every four to seven years in more southerly climes.

The 2015 El Nino is regarded as perhaps the most powerful in a century and, combined with the effects of climate change, it has generated storms, flood and droughts in Central America and beyond.

AFP