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Antarctica Just Got Hotter Than Has Ever Been Recorded, Twice

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First published on ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which was recently named one of Time magazine’s Top 25 blogs of 2010.

CREDIT: shutterstock

The coldest place on Earth just got warmer than has ever been recorded.

According to the weather blog Weather Underground, on Tuesday, March 24, the temperature in Antarctica rose to 63.5°F (17.5C) — a record for the polar continent. Part of a longer heat wave, the record high came just a day after the previous record was set at 63.3°F.

Tuesday’s temperature was taken at the Argentina’s Esperanza Base, located near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Monday record was from Marambio Base, about 60 miles southeast of Esperanza. Both are records for the locations, however the World Meteorological Organization is yet to certify that the temperatures are all-time weather records for Antarctica. Before these two chart-toppers, the highest recorded temperature from these outposts was 62.8°F in 1961.

Setting a new all-time temperature record for an entire continent is rare and requires the synthesizing of a lot of data. As Weather Underground’s weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, explains, there is debate over what exactly is included in the continent Antarctica, and by the narrowest interpretation, which would include only sites south of the Antarctic Circle, Esperanza would not be part of the continent.

According to the WMO, the official keeper of global temperature records, the all-time high temperature for Antarctica was 59°F in 1974. As Mashable reports, the verification process for these new records could take months as the readings must be checked for accuracy.

 

Departure of temperature from average for Tuesday, March, 24, 2015, over Antarctica.

CREDIT: University of Main Climate Reanalyzer.

Even in their unofficial capacity, the readings are stunning.

As Burt reports, these temperature records occurred nearly three months past the warmest time of year in the Antarctic Peninsula, December, when the average high is 37.8°F. The average high for March is 31.3°F, making this week’s records more than 30°F above average. Burt also points out that temperature records for Esperanza have previously occurred in October and April, so these spikes are not unheard of.

They should also not be unexpected: the poles are warming faster than any part of the planet and rapid ice melt is being observed at increased rates in Antarctica. According to a new study, ice shelves in West Antarctica have lost as much as 18 percent of their volume over the last two decades, with rapid acceleration occurring over the last decade. The study found that from 1994 to 2003, the overall loss of ice shelf volume across the continent was negligible, but over the last decade West Antarctic losses increased by 70 percent.

According to the British Antarctic Survey, since records for the Antarctic Peninsula began half a century ago, the average temperature has risen about 5°F, making it “the most rapidly warming region in the Southern Hemisphere – comparable to rapidly warming regions of the Arctic.”

While the polar regions are feeling the most severe temperature changes brought on by the rise in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, areas across the globe are setting record highs at a much faster rate than record lows. Since 2010, 46 nations or territories out of 235 have set or tied record highs. Only four have set record lows. According to the Weather Underground, so far this year, five nations or territories have tied or set all-time records for their highest temperature: Antarctica, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Wallis and Futuna Territory, and Samoa.

The post Antarctica Just Got Hotter Than Has Ever Been Recorded, Twice appeared first on ThinkProgress.


Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/28/3640232/antarctica-breaks-thermostat/


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    Total 4 comments
    • LifeIs

      Antarctica has record sea ice extent, and it has been setting records for years now.

      Antarctica is getting colder.

      And it has been for years now.

    • TC

      Picking and choosing statistics that can’t be verified to prove something that isn’t true.

      It’s an old trick. If I were to write an article that there are more midgets per capita in Poland than anywhere else, and that we need to send billions in aid to help them avoid the curse of excessive midgetism, who can prove me wrong?

      Somebody give me a good headline, and we’ll see whether we can get it published.

    • Dustdevil

      Basic rule: If you can’t prove your lies any other way (because everyone can clearly see you are lying), claim the lie is based in a place you know that no one can refute easily.

      Since the U.S. just had an epic cold and snowy winter, the only way to sell climate change to a growing skeptic-minded population is to claim it’s actually getting warmer in a place you MUST have an official invite to go to, 12,000 miles from your native nation.

      Think about it – they could claim that polar bears just recently turned brown due to climate change, and you’d have absolutely NO WAY to prove it differently; especially if the government said it was in their best interest that you believe it and warned all ‘authorized personnel’ that did go there, to NOT DISCLOSE OR REFUTE the story-line given.

      THIS is what we are all suffering with, from global warming. YOU WANT WEATHER CHANGES, they use HAARP and blame the atmospheric deviance on you. Greatest ‘weapon of the gods’ ever created. Either you are in on it, or you are a lackie that can’t prove anything against it – since it DOESN’T EXIST (even when the U.S. patents say it exists and can do EXACTLY what I’m saying).

      That’s ok, though. One day soon, the truth will be verified, and those who have done this, or supported this, or hidden this techology will answer for what they have done. Screaming ‘I didn’t know they were doing evil things with it’ isn’t going to help you not be counted with them. STOP supporting platforms that you have no way to prove what is actually happening.

    • barry oldwater

      The ground is getting warmer in these areas where snowpack occurs, mountains were formed by upheavals in the crust and the fractured rock allows magma to come closer to the earths surface, its not the weather its the earths crust warming, the volcanic activity should have clued these people in.

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