Navy Electronics Laboratory events—the submerged voyage of USS "Nautilus" from the Pacific to the Atlantic, via the North Pole, in 1958, with NEL’s Dr. Waldo Lyon aboard as chief scientist and ice pilot. That same summer, the USS "Skate" cruised from the Atlantic to the North Pole and the central Arctic Ocean, surfacing 9 times through small holes in the ice cap. Dr. Eugene C. La Fond, head of NEL's Oceanography Branch, was chief scientist In March 1959, the "Skate" returned to the Arctic, under winter conditions, with Dr. Waldo Lyon as chief scientist, and for the first time, the nuclear submarine was
North Pole heat), rather than at altitude on a continental land mass. Despite being an ice cap, it shares some characteristics with a tundra climate ("ETf") due to the July and August temperatures peaking just above freezing. Winter temperatures at the northernmost weather station in Greenland can range from about , averaging around , with the North Pole being slightly colder. However, a freak storm caused the temperature to reach for a time at a World Meteorological Organization buoy, located at 87.45°N, on December 30, 2015. It was estimated that the temperature at the North Pole was between during the storm. Summer