Antarctica: Temperatures above 30 C above normal

Eastern Antarctica recorded exceptionally high temperatures this week, 30 degrees Celsius higher than normal, experts said on Twitter.

The Concordia Research Station, located in the Dom C of the Antarctic Plateau at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, recorded a record “heat” of -11.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, “breaking an all-time high of 13.7 சாதனை on December 17, 2016,” Météo said. -France forecaster Etienne Kapikian tweeted.

The Dumont d’Urville site, located off the coast of Adelie Land, recorded a moderate record of +4.9 ° C in March and a low of +0.2 C on March 18, although temperatures were expected to drop by the end of the Australian summer.

read more: The largest existing glacier breaks off from Antarctica

Ga (tan Heymes from Météo-France noted on Twitter that “there are occasional frost-free days in (Dumont d’Urville), but they did not occur after February 22 (1991).” He described the frozen continent as “a historically mild phenomenon in the east” with temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees Celsius above seasonal norms.

Heat wave in eastern Antarctica

“December is the time when temperatures begin to drop rapidly from the summer solstice,” said Jonathan Ville, a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences in Grenoble. “This heat wave in Antarctica changes what we thought was possible for Antarctica weather.”

Although it is not possible at the exact moment that an event is the cause of climate change, one of the clearest signs of global warming is the amplitude and intensity of heat waves.

The poles are warming faster than the planet’s average, averaging +1.1 ° C above pre-industrial times.

Blog post: Antarctic sea ice is minimized and promotes warming

The eastern Antarctic heat wave was caused by satellite measurements in late February 1979, when the Antarctic Ocean ice reached its smallest area of ​​less than 2 million square kilometers, according to the U.S. Center for Snow and Ice Data.