Antarctica: Winter experiences due to persistent heatwave 14/08/2024

The average temperature anomaly in July even reached 9-10 °C in limited parts of Dronning Maud Land and part of the eastern Weddell Sea off the coast (Juan BARRETO)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Antarctica: Winter experiences due to persistent heatwave

According to the UK's National Polar Research Institute, Antarctica, the world's coldest continent, is experiencing an unusually long heatwave during its winter.

Temperature anomalies are not uncommon on the continent known as “ice”, but “the longevity of the warm spell is unusual,” Thomas Caton Harrison, a polar climatologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP this week.

Preliminary figures suggest that the Antarctic-wide average temperature near the ground in July 2024 was 3.1 degrees Celsius above normal for that month.

Calculated over land and continental ice, this is the second warmest July in Antarctica since records began in 1979 - the warmest was in July 1981.

Average daily temperatures ranged from -34.68°C on July 15 to -28.12°C on July 31, according to data posted online by the University of Maine.

On August 7, the latest date available, the average temperature on the continent was -26.6 °C.

The average temperature anomaly in July reached as high as 9-10 °C in limited parts of Dronning Maud Land and part of the eastern Weddell Sea off the coast.

Daily temperature anomalies are common in the Antarctic winter, but “the persistently high temperatures are remarkable,” said Caton Harrison.

“Very early numbers suggest it could be a hot Antarctic winter,” he added.

“Antarctica” is the coldest, windiest, and most sparsely populated continent on Earth, but it too is affected by global warming.

Extreme heat on the continent has high risks, especially as a trigger for major ice loss.

According to a study published in June in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists have detected a new tipping point towards the “runaway melting” of Antarctic ice sheets caused by warm seawater seeping in between the ice and the land it sits on.

As sea temperatures rise due to man-made global warming, Antarctic ice sheets are melting, threatening a rise in global sea levels and endangering coastal communities.

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