Antarctica, known as the coldest place on earth, has recorded its highest temperature ever for the continent. A sign of the times with regards to climate change.
On 6 February, a temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius was recorded by an Argentinian research centre, the Esperanza base, at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
‘[This] is not a figure you would normally associate with Antarctica even in the summertime. This beat the former record of 17.5 degrees C, which was set back in 2015,’ Clare Nullis, a World Meteorological Organisation spokesperson, said in a press conference in Geneva.
‘The Antarctic peninsula is among the fastest warming regions of the planet. We hear a lot about the Arctic, but this particular part of the Antarctic peninsula is warming very quickly.
‘The amount of ice lost annually from the Antarctic ice sheet increased at least six-fold between 1979 and 2017. The melting from these glaciers, you know, means we are in big trouble when it comes to sea level rise,’ she said.
WMO said an expert panel will be set up at Esperanza research base to verify the temperature.
WMO will set up expert panel to verify new record temperature for the #Antarctic continent reported by @SMN_Argentina of 18.3°C on 6 Feb at Esperanza research base. Latest news on this and Antarctic glaciers at https://t.co/CtDFFsUG0h pic.twitter.com/9gpfLxFKls
— WMO | OMM (@WMO) February 7, 2020
Image: Unsplash
