T-shirt weather on the ice
Just days after scientists announced that Earth had its warmest January ever, Antarctica has broken the record for its warmest temperature.
A reading of 18.3 degrees Celsius was taken at Esperanza Base on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula on Friday – the frigid continent’s highest measured temperature.
Randy Cerveny, who tracks extremes for the World Meteorological Organisation, called the reading a ‘‘likely record’’, although it will still have to be officially reviewed and certified.
The balmy reading beat the previous record of 17.5C, which occurred on March 24, 2015.
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming regions in the world.
In just the past 50 years, temgperatures there have surged a staggering 5C in response to Earth’s swiftly warming climate. Around 87 per cent of glaciers along the peninsula’s west coast have retreated in that time, the majority doing so at an accelerated pace since 2008.
The recent spate of warmth is due to a ridge of high pressure that has lingered over the region for several days. This effect was amplified due to a ‘‘foehn’’ wind, characterised by air sweeping down a mountain that begins compressing as air pressures rise.
January 2020 was the warmest January on record globally, according to atmospheric monitoring group Copernicus, with records shattered in Europe and Asia. Some locations in Eastern Europe and particularly Russia wound up more than 4C above average.
‘‘[This record] doesn’t come as any surprise,’’ wrote Eric Steig, a glaciologist studying climate change at the University of Washington.
‘‘Warming has been particularly fast on the Antarctic Peninsula – where Esperanza is – in summer. So we can expect these sorts of records to be set again and again,’’ he said.