The Earth’s poles are experiencing extreme heat simultaneously, with parts of Antarctica being more than 70 degrees warmer than average and areas of the Arctic more than 50 degrees warmer than average.
David Goldman / AP
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David Goldman / AP
The Earth’s poles are experiencing extreme heat simultaneously with parts of Antarctica being more than 70 degrees (40 degrees Celsius) warmer than average and areas of the Arctic more than 50 degrees warmer than average. (30 degree).
Antarctic weather stations broke records on Friday as the region neared fall. Concordia Station is two miles (3,234 meters) high at 10 degrees (-12.2 degrees Celsius), about 70 degrees warmer than average, while the even taller Vostok station has shade above zero ( -17.7 degrees Celsius), beating its all-time record by about 27 degrees (15 degrees Celsius), according to a tweet from extreme weather record tracker Maximiliano Herrera.
The coastal Terra Nova base has temperatures well above freezing at 44.6 degrees (7 degrees Celsius).
It surprised officials at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, because they were paying attention to the Arctic, where it is 50 degrees warmer than average and areas around the Arctic are growing. close to or at the melting point, which is truly unusual mid-March, Central Ice Scientist Walt Meier said.
“They’re two opposite seasons. You don’t see the north and south (the poles) melting at the same time,” Meier told The Associated Press on Friday night. “It’s definitely an unusual occurrence.”
“It’s pretty cool,” added Meier.
“Wow. I’ve never seen anything like this in Antarctica,” said University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, who recently returned from an expedition to the continent.
“It’s not a good sign when you see that happening,” said University of Wisconsin meteorologist Matthew Lazzara.
Lazzara tracks temperatures at East Antarctica’s Dome C-ii and recorded 14 degrees (-10 degrees Celsius) on Friday, where the normal is -45 degrees (-43 degrees Celsius): “That’s the temperature: that you’ll see in January, not March. January is summer there. It’s impressive.”
Experts advise that it is unclear whether the record heat is really part of climate change
Both Lazzara and Meier said what happened in Antarctica was probably just a random weather event and not a sign of climate change. But if it happens over and over again it could be worrisome and part of global warming, they said.
Warm weather in Antarctica was first reported by The Washington Post.
The entire Antarctic continent on Friday was about 8.6 degrees (4.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than its baseline temperature from 1979 to 2000, according to the University of Maine Climate Reactor, which is based on weather model of the US National Atmospheric Administration. It’s unusual to think of it as 8 degrees hotter than average, Meier said, referring to America as a whole, Meier said.
At the same time, on Friday, the entire Arctic was 6 degrees (3.3 degrees) warmer than the 1979-2000 average.
For comparison, the world as a whole is just 1.1 degrees (0.6 degrees Celsius) higher than the 1979-2000 average. Globally, the average from 1979 to 2000 was about half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average.
What makes Antarctic warming really strange, says Meier, is that the southern continent – except for the vulnerable peninsula that is warming rapidly and losing ice rapidly – has not warmed much, especially in Antarctica. when compared to the rest of the globe.
The Snow and Ice Data Center reports that Antarctica set a record for the lowest amount of sea ice in the summer – a record since 1979 – when it shrank to 741,000 square miles (1.9 million square kilometers) by the end of the month. Two.
What’s likely to happen is “a major atmospheric river” being pumped by warm, moist air southward from the Pacific Ocean, Meier said.
And in the Arctic, which is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe and considered vulnerable to climate change, warm Atlantic air is spilling northward. off the coast of Greenland.
