The United Nations has confirmed a new record high temperature in Antarctica. The continent's heat record was broken on February 6, 2020, with a temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on July 1 .
The record was set at the Argentine scientific station “Esperanza” and exceeds that recorded in the same area of the Antarctic Peninsula on March 24 , 2015, when the thermometer showed 17.5 degrees Celsius (63.5 ° F), the WMO said. In the wider Antarctic region, the highest temperature ever recordedwas that on Signy Island, at 19.8 degrees Celsius, on January 30, 1982.
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Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of WMO, said: “The confirmation of this maximum temperature record is important because it helps us to build a picture of the weather and climate at one of the Earth’s final frontiers. The Antarctic Peninsula is among the regions with the fastest global warming – almost 3°C over the last 50 years. This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing.”
The WMO rejected an even higher temperature reading of 20.75°C (69.4°F), which was reported on February 9, 2020 , at a Brazilian automated permafrost monitoring station on nearby Seymour Island, just off the peninsula that extends north into South America.
Verification process
In reviewing the two reported new temperature records, a WMO panel examined the weather conditions over the peninsula at the time. It found that a large high-pressure system generated low-level winds that caused significant surface heating. Previous assessments have shown that such conditions contribute to record temperatures, the WMO said.
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Experts examined the instrument settings and data, finding nothing worrisome on Esperanza. However, a makeshift radiation shield at the Brazilian station on Seymour Island led to a proven thermal bias error for the permafrost monitor's air temperature sensor, making its reading unsuitable for signing off as an official WMO weather observation.
The new record from Esperanza will be added to the WMO's record of extreme weather and climate events. The record includes the world's highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hail, longest drought, maximum wind gust, longest lightning strike and weather-related deaths.
The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was –89.2 °C (–128.6 °F) recorded at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983.
Concerns about global warming
average annual temperature ranges from about –10°C (14°F) on the coast to –60°C (-76°F) at the highest points in the interior.
"Even more than the Arctic, Antarctica is poorly covered in terms of continuous weather and climate observations and forecasts, even though both play a significant role in driving climate and oceans and sea level rise," Taalas pointed out.
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The Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 1°C since the 19th century, enough to increase the intensity of droughts, heatwaves and tropical cyclones. However, the air over Antarctica has warmed more than twice as much.
In addition, recent research has shown that a two-degree Celsius rise in temperaturecould lead to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica – with enough frozen water to raise oceans by 13 meters (43 feet) – past a point of no return.
Celeste Saulo, First Vice-President of WMO and Head of Argentina's National Weather Service, said: "This new record shows once again that climate change requires urgent action. It is important to continue strengthening observation, forecasting and early warning systems to respond to the extreme events that are occurring more and more frequently due to warming global
Information source: sciencealert.com
