What’s going on in Antarctica

First of all, it is worth noting that the general temperatures are still below zero. However, Antarctic climate scientist Stefano Di Battista reported that the average temperature at one of the measurement points near the Antarctic station in X was -60.4 degrees. 6 degrees Celsius higherHigher than the average between 1958 and 2023. At the same time, the temperature in the eastern part of the continent in July (when it is winter there) 28 degrees Celsius higher for average

Italian meteorologist Giulio Betti explained that the high temperatures in the interior of the continent contrast with the unusually cold temperatures in the coastal areas. The strange conditions are associated with anomalous atmospheric events for this region.

Temperatures in Antarctica have been well above average for several days now, but this time it has nothing to do with climate change — it was due to a rare stratospheric warming that weakened the Antarctic vortex and contributed to a strong downward compression.
says Betty.

He added that this type of stratospheric warming is common in the Arctic, but rare in the Antarctic.

The average temperature at another research station in Antarctica between July 20 and 30 was -47.6 degrees Celsius, which would be normal for late summer in the region, not midsummer.

Threats to Antarctica

• The unseasonably warm weather comes two years after record-breaking Antarctic temperatures saw an ice shelf the size of Hong Kong “completely collapse”.
• It also came amid a global heatwave that has seen the record for the hottest day on record broken twice.

Antarctica as a whole has warmed along with the world over the last 50 years, in fact over the last 150 years. […] However, it would not be wrong to say that most of the increase in the past month was due to the heat wave.
– says Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at Berkeley Earth.

Fortunately, this time the continent did not warm enough to melt the ice.