Contrary to recent reports, an expert from North Pole Environmental Observatory confirmed that the North Pole hasn't flooded but has been subjected to extensive Arctic melting.

Seems like Santa Clause doesn't need to invest in a snorkel yet and children can rest assured his workshop is in perfect working condition! Earlier last week, a new set of pictures obtained by the North Pole Environmental Observatory revealed a new lake formation in the North Pole and experts worried that the region had been flooded.

However, according to Jamie Morison, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and principal investigator since 2000 of the North Pole Environmental Observatory, this occurrence takes place most summers and there's nothing to worry about. He confirms that the North Pole is not flooded yet but has been subjected to extensive melting.

"Every summer when the sun melts the surface the water has to go someplace, so it accumulates in these ponds," Morison said in a press release. "This doesn't look particularly extreme."

After doing a thorough analysis of the dramatic North Pole Lake pictures that were released, Morison and his team provided a detailed explanation about the occurrence on the North Pole Environmental Observatory website.

"The picture is slightly distorted," said Axel Schweiger, who heads the Applied Physics Laboratory's Polar Science Center. "In the background you see what looks like mountains, and that's where the scale problem comes in - those are actually ridges where the ice was pushed together."

Researchers confirmed that the new formed "lake" is about 2 feet deep and a few hundred feet wide, which is not unusual to find on an Arctic ice floe in late July. Earlier reports from Reuters confirmed that the lake drained late July 27.

Schweiger revealed that last year, the sea-ice hit a record low  since measurements began in 1979. In fact, this year, melting in the North Pole started later than usual but picked up momentum in the last few weeks before the lake formation.